


The Kids Aren't Alright

by Consultingwesen



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A dash of hurt/no comfort too, Amputation, Gen, Hurt Shiro (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, Shiro (Voltron) Whump, We're jumping all over the voltron time-line so buckle up, Whumptober 2020, a dash of Lance (Voltron) Whump, no beta we die like men, tw: blood and injuries
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:20:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 20,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26765683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Consultingwesen/pseuds/Consultingwesen
Summary: Just a bunch of short prompts for Whumptober 2020. Majority, if not all, will feature our favorite Black Paladin and Captain of the Atlas, Takashi Shirogane. Tags will be updated as each chapter is uploaded.
Relationships: Past Shiro/Adam (Voltron)
Comments: 50
Kudos: 38





	1. Let’s Hangout Sometime: Waking up Restrained

**Author's Note:**

> All of the prompts can be found at https://whumptober2020.tumblr.com/
> 
> Thought I'd give whumptober a try, and who better else to have suffer than my favorite Voltron character. I make no promises that I will get all of the prompts posted once a day, but damn it I will get through all of them.
> 
> Kudos and Comments are always appreciated, hope y'all enjoy.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 1  
> Let’s Hangout Sometime: **Waking up Restrained** | Shackled | Hanging

Shiro awoke to the feeling of cold water splashing onto his face. Coughing, he shook the water droplets off of his head. He went to move his hand to wipe his eyes, but found that both hands were restrained behind his back. Panic shook the rest of the fog from his brain. He was on the floor, hands shackled to what he was assuming was the wall behind him. His feet were also chained together as well, much to Shiro’s disappointment. No memory of how he was captured sprung to his mind, but the pounding of his head gave him some clue as to how. 

“Good you’re awake.” 

Shiro’s looked up his eyes focusing on his captor, a Galran commander judging by her armor. The commander leered over him, obviously enjoying the situation.“I am Commander Lok, and you are now my honored guest little champion.” Lok drug a claw down Shiro’s face mockingly. “I’m sure you are wondering what I am going to do with you. So let me put your mind at ease.” 

“Aren’t you so kind.” Shiro deadpanned. He probably shouldn’t sass his captor, but he was angry and his head was throbbing. He wasn’t exactly at his best right now. 

He winced when she grabbed his face, digging her claws in as she forced his head up. 

“Such a mouth on you,” Lok tisked, “I’d hate to have to muzzle you but I will if I have to.” Shiro was unable to hide the fear that welled up at the thought of being muzzled, if Lok’s smirk was anything to go by. He pushed down the memories bubbling at the surface, there was no time for an episode now. When he made no response Lok patted his head demeaningly. “Now that’s better. I couldn’t believe my luck, you know. When I got a tip that the Black Paladin of Voltron was spotted on a world in my sector without the other paladins nearby, I just had to have them bring you to me. What were you doing on that world I haven’t the slightest clue, nor do I care to know.” 

Shit. His memory of the past day returned at Lok’s words. He had been sent to a nearby planet alone for a recon mission. See how engulfed the society was in Galran control, and if there was a foothold for the coalition to start a rebellion in this sector. His contact that the blades had supplied must have decided the reward for turning him into the Galra was worth the betrayal. 

“You are going to give me great favor with Emperor Zarkon. Especially after I turn you over to him with the lions.”

“You’re crazy if you think that Voltron will give up the lions in exchange for me. One paladin is not worth five lions.” Shiro said, wiggling his hands to see if there was any room for him to escape the shackles. 

Lok’s smile grew deadly before she let out a laugh. “Oh you poor thing. I’m not ransoming you. No, you will be the bait for a trap that your precious paladins will not ignore.” She leaned into Shiro’s face, close enough he could feel her rancid breath. “Your paladins will come to rescue their precious leader, like lambs lead to the slaughter. And you. You will have a front row seat to helplessly watch their demise.” 

No. He needed to escape. He refused to put his team in danger because of him. There had to be a way out of his restraints. Lok stood up, turning her back on him to exit the room. But she paused at the door, turning her head to glance at him.

“Oh, I wouldn’t try to use your metal arm if I was you. You’ll find the results... shocking.” 

As if on cue, Shiro felt a wave of electricity run through him. He bit down hard onto his tongue, muffling the grunt of pain. 

“I will see you later, champion.” 

With that she left Shiro alone with the darkness of his cell. 


	2. In the Hands of the Enemy: Collars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day two: In the Hands of the Enemy: “Pick who Dies”| **Collars** | Kidnapped
> 
> Something familiar catches Shiro's eye during a routine rescue mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, sorry for the late update but grad school got busy there for a minute and my muse went on strike. I'm working on chapter 3 right now and should (hopefully) be up soon, if not later today. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy this chapter! It's more comfort than whump lol.

As usual Shiro was one of the first of the team to walk into the kitchen in the morning. Hunk was standing over the stove, muttering to himself, but Shiro only gave him a nod as he headed straight for the Altean version of coffee. It wasn’t quite the same thing, but it got the job done. He needed it after the restless night he had. If he was lucky he could get 4 hours of sleep a night, but last night was not one of those nights. Shiro wasn’t sure he got more than an hour of uninterrupted sleep. 

He needed to be on top of things today. They were going to hit another Galran prisonship, one that Pidge had tagged as a possibility for where her dad or brother may be at. He could already feel the anticipation and anxiety bubbling inside himself, he couldn’t imagine how Katie must be feeling today. 

More of the paladins came wandering in as the hour grew closer to their normal breakfast time. By the time everyone had gathered Shiro had finished his first cup of “coffee” and was sipping on his second. He was starting to feel more human, ready to interact with his family and face the day’s problems. 

Breakfast itself was a quiet affair. Everyone could sense the tension in the air, not even Lance dared to break the mood with a joke or a jab at Keith. By the time Allura ushered them to the bridge to begin mission prep the paladins were focused and ready for the day. 

Shiro took a moment to give Pidge a friendly nudge, shooting her a measuring smile when she looked up at him. She let out a deep breath, closing her eyes for a second before nodding back at him with a small smile. They didn’t need words, both knew what the other was feeling. 

Shiro gave a small prayer to any gods that were listening that they would find the Holts today. Pidge deserved her family back.

* * *

  
It was a fairly simple infiltration. Hunk, Kieth, and Lance would run distraction while Pidge, Shiro, and Allura rescued the prisoners. Coran’s mustache had twitched when Allura insisted on going, but calmed when the princess reassured him that they’d stay as a group. 

Once inside, Shiro was able to lead them to where the prison cells were located. It seemed every Galran ship’s layout was relatively the same. This particular prisonship was known to hold some of the Empire’s greater slave assets, so the possibility the Holts had at least passed through here was high. 

They stopped at the terminal leading to the cells.   
“You’re up Pidge.” He said to the younger paladin. Pidge wasted no time, pulling up her armor’s computer as she headed to the terminal. 

Allura and Shiro took a defensive around her, letting their tech genius go to work.

“Hey Shiro? I’m going to need your hand for a minute.” 

Shiro nodded, placing his metal hand on the pad Pidge pointed at. “You took care of my prisoner ID?”

“Yeah, should overwrite the alarm. We’ll find out... now.” 

The pad glowed green and the door to the cell hallway opened up. 

“Nice work Pidge.” Allura complimented. Shiro took his hand off and gave Pidge a squeeze on her shoulder. 

Pidge beamed, unhooking her armor from the console.   
“Let’s go save some prisoners.”

The trio headed into the hallway, checking over each door as they passed for people. 

“Over here, quickly.” A voice grabbed their attention from the end of the hallway. They quickly made their way over to find an alien that looked like Slav leaning out of the bars of their cell. 

“We’re here to rescue you.” Allura stated as Pidge got to working on the cell doors. 

“You’re Voltron, aren’t you?” The alien asked nervously, watching Pidge work. 

“We are, how many others are on the ship?” Shiro confirmed. 

“There’s three of us in this cell and one more on the cell to your left.” The alien answered. 

“Any humans?” Pidge questioned anxiously, looking up from her work.

“No, sorry. They’ve been transporting us to different planet labor stations. What’s left of us were going to the main hub to the druids.” 

Shiro felt a shiver run down his spine, echoed by the alien who spoke. They both knew the fate of those who went to the druids. He rubbed the port of where his metal arm met flesh absentmindedly. 

“I’m almost done with this cell, Shiro you think you can open the other?” Pidge asked, clearly trying to hide her disappointment. 

Shiro nodded, sharing a look with Allura over the smaller paladin’s shoulder. He’d talk to Pidge later once they were safely on the castleship. He made his way over to the cell to their left, plugging in his armor into the cell’s key pad. 

“Hold on in there, I’m getting you out.” He called into the cell, concerned when no one made their way to the cell bars. He heard the other cell door open, as Pidge and Allura ushered the prisoners out into the hallway with them. But his focus centered on opening the cell in front of him. Pidge had shown all of them the basics so any of them could hold their own if needed, plus he had been friends with Matt for years. If he hadn’t picked up any tech knowledge Matt would have disowned him. 

Shiro let out an exclamatory noise as the cell door opened, removing his armor from the cell pad. He stepped into the dark cell, scanning for any sign of life. 

His eyes landed on a gaunt Unilu huddled in a corner of the cell. All of its arms were wrapped around itself as they stared up at him fearfully. Wrapped around its neck and mouth was a familiar muzzle collar. 

  
**_The galran guard yelled as Shiro bit down on the arm wrapped around his neck. The guard dropped his choke hold, causing Shiro to collapse to the ground gasping for breath._ **

**_“The little thing quiznacking bit me!”_ **

**_“Shouldn’t have gotten near its biters then Von.” The other galran guard scolded. “Guess we’ll have to muzzle this one when it’s not feeding time.” He leared down at Shiro. “Maybe even leave the muzzle on, see how it feels about biting then.”_ **

**_“Just hurry up and muzzle the damn monster. I hope it doesn’t have any diseases.” The bitten guard scrunched his face._ **

**_“Yeah yeah, I’m on it give me a tick.”_ **

**_Shiro was shaken from his panic when rough hands grasped at his shoulders, pinning him to the ground. He attempted to struggle, but the guard used his extra weight to keep Shiro pinned._ **   
**_Something snapped around his neck with a click, and before he knew it cold metal surrounded his mouth and nose._ **

**_The guards didn’t give him any time to recover, instead opting to drag him to his cell by his hair. Once he was secure the one who he bit sneered at him safely from the other side of his cell._ **

**_“Not so tough now, are you?”_ **

**_Shiro felt around his neck. Sure enough the collar had somehow transformed into a metal muzzle. The edges were sharp, he could already feel it dig into his nose. He struggled to keep his breathing calm as the guards left him alone in his cell._ **

“-iro, everything alright in there?” Allura called out, pulling Shiro from his thoughts. He shook his head, his hand rubbing across the scar on his nose. 

“Yeah give me a moment.” He called back, before turning his attention back on the Unilu. 

“Hey, it’s ok. I’m with Voltron, we’re getting you out of here.” He reassured in a soft voice. “But I need to get closer to inspect that collar. May I?”

The Unilu studied him for a second before nodding. Shiro approaches them slowly, before kneeling onto the ground near them. He looked over the collar, searching for some sort of mechanism to unlock it. But the collar was smooth. If he didn’t know better he’d think there was no way to remove it. 

“Ok, I’m not going to be able to remove it on my own. But my friend is a genius. If we leave this cell she can take a look over it okay?”

Shiro offered his hand out to help the Unilu up. They looked down at his hand before meeting his eyes. Shakily, they took his outstretched hand with one of theirs. He offered them a reassuring smile, hoping they wouldn’t pick up on the shakiness of it, pulling them to their feet. 

He let the Unilu leave first before following them out.   
“Hey Pidge?”

“Yeah Shiro?” Pidge looked up from where she was talking with Allura. 

“Do you think you can get this off?” He motioned down at the Unilu. “I don’t see any mechanism, so it may be tech based.”

Pidge’s eyes widened for a moment at the Unilu before she schooled her face into something more neutral. “Yeah let me get a scan real quick.” 

She activated the computer on her armor, a blue light running over the muzzle. The Unilu flinched, but otherwise stayed still. 

“Hmmm. I don’t have the tools needed on me. Hunk and I can remove it in the castle though.”

“I hate to interrupt, but we need to get moving. I don’t know for how much longer the distraction will work.” Allura cut in. 

“The princess is right. We can remove your muzzle back on our ship where it’s safe, I promise.” Shiro spoke the last part to the Unilu. 

“Right, this way then. The security cams are still disabled so it should be an easy route back to Green.” 

Pidge and Allura took point, leading the prisoners back out of the hallway. Shiro took up the back, keeping an eye out for any galran patrols. He ignored the way his hands lightly shook, pushing down any other memories threatening to escape. He’d have time to deal with them once the prisoners were safely aboard the castle. 

* * *

  
“Shiro?” 

Shiro looked over his shoulder at the sound of his name. Pidge stood hesitantly at the door to the engine room. He gave her a shaky smile, reinforcing it with a confidence he didn’t feel. “Hey Pidge, everything ok?”

“Yeah.” Pidge made her way over to him, choosing to sit on the right of him. “We were able to get that collar off of the Unilu. All of the people we rescued are in pods right now.”

Shiro relaxed at that. “Good. Did you find any data about your family from the ship?”

Pidge shook her head. “Not yet. I’m still running it through the decoder though so maybe there will be something. But that’s not why I came here.” 

She looked up at Shiro hesitantly. “Stop me if this is too much but... That Unilu. When we finally got the muzzle to deactivate and removed the collar... they had a wound going across their nose from where the muzzle dug in. I... is that how you got that scar?” Pidge motioned to her nose.

“I....” Shiro froze for a second, forcing down the panic bubbling up from one of his team finding out about part of his treatment with the Galra. “Yeah.” He sighed, shoulders slumping. “I didn’t remember at first, but when I saw the muzzle collar today...”

Tiny arms wrapped around him from the side. He looked down at Pidge in surprise, the younger paladin having only initiated a hug only once before.

“I’m sorry you went through that.” She mumbled into his side. “It’s not fair and I wish there was a way I could fix it.” 

Shiro smiled, letting himself relax into the hug. “It’s ok Pidge.” She squeezed him tighter. “Just being here now helps more than you know.” 

She looked up at him. “It’s not ok though. They hurt you and you never talk about it. Matt used to always help me through my problems, I want to be able to do the same for you.”

Warmth filled his chest as Shiro blinked away tears. “Pidge...” He paused, not sure what to say. He was honored that she cared for him, enough that she wanted to help take away past hurts, but she was still just a kid. There was no way he would place the horrors of his captivity onto her shouldrs, not if he could help it. “I promise I’m ok. I’m not 100%, but being here. You and the other paladins being here. It helps.”

Pidge lets out a sigh, nodding. “Okay. You’d tell me if there was anything else I could do?”

“Of course, I wouldn’t want to feel the wrath of your pranks if I didn’t.” He fake shuttered. “I heard enough stories from Matt.”

She laughed, an evil glint in her eyes. “Good. I know you won’t talk about everything with us, and I get why. But... we care about you, and I’d hate to have to break in a new CO. Promise you’ll talk with Coran? He can be pretty wise sometimes.” 

Shiro looked down at the ground, mulling the request over. On one hand he didn’t want to speak to anyone about what he went through with the Galra. But he knew Pidge, Kieth, and the other paladins worried about him. And Coran was neutral enough. He wasn’t in the chain of command per say, and not directly responsible for giving Shiro his command. He had to admit that Pidge’s idea had merit.

“I promise I’ll think about it. Coran’s pretty busy keeping the castle running, I don’t want to bother him too much.”

Pidge snorted. “Yeah I”m pretty sure he’d drop everything to help you. You’d be a captive audience for his stories.” 

“Not helping your cause there.” Shiro teased. “If I have to suffer then I will ensure we spend some training time learning about Altean culture from him again.”

Pidge’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t!” 

Shiro kept his face neutral from his amusement. “Try me.” 

“I take it back, you’re the worst CO every.”

Shiro laughed, rolling his eyes. “Oh the woes of being a leader.” 

He let out a grunt when Pidge elbowed him, hard, and responded with ruffling up her already messy hair. 

“Oh it’s on now Shirogane.” Pidge shouted. 

“What’s that? I can’t hear you. Gravity is suddenly increasing on me...” He placed his weight onto where Pidge still had a hold of him. She shrieked as she fell to the ground, Shiro pinning her. 

“Hey no fair!” 

When the other paladins finally found them, both Shiro and Pidge were out of breath. Pidge from squealing as Shiro relentlessly tickled her. 

Lance stood above them with his arms crossed, a pretty decent imitation of Shiro’s dissapointed face. “How come you two get to have all the fun while Coran put the rest of us to work?”

Shiro stood up, effortlessly removing Pidge from where she had attempted to latch on in a counterstrike. “Sorry we got carried away...” He made the effort to look sheepish, not that he really felt that way. “Is it dinner time?”

“Nah not yet, we’re having goo tonight since we can’t restock until we drop off the people we rescued so it won’t take any time to prep.” Hunk answered. The yellow paladin shared a look with Pidge, but Shiro had no clue what it meant. Those two were scary when they communicated silently. 

“You know Shiro, you versus Pidge isn’t quite fair.” Lance started, a mischievous look forming onto his face. “Hunk, Keith, what do you say we even up the odds some?” 

Oh no.

“Yeah, I smell what you’re stepping in Lance.” Hunk smirked. “Keith?”

Keith looked up at Shrio. Shiro sent him a wide eye look, begging for some backup. 

“Yeah, why not.” Keith responds, the little shit. 

Well, his command was nice while it lasted. 

Lance struck first, launching himself at Shiro. But his movement was easily telegraphed so Shiro had little trouble avoiding the attack.   
“Right I just remembered Allura needed me for something, gotta go.” 

He took off running, hoping he’d get enough of a head start so they wouldn’t catch up with him. He could hear the protests of his team behind him, and he couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him.

Today hadn’t started out the greatest. But his new team always surprised him with how quickly they could change that. He knew how lucky he was to have them, and he didn’t plan on taking them for granted with whatever time he had left in this galaxy. 

That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t get immense joy from the extra running drills they would do in training tomorrow morning. Serves them right for attempting a coup against their leader.


	3. My Way or the Highway: Held at Gunpoint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 3. My Way or the Highway: Manhandled| Forced to Their Knees| **Held at Gunpoint**
> 
> Don't worry they said, nothing will go wrong at the shield tower they said. Or Shiro always seems to find trouble, no matter where he goes. But being snuck up on and held hostage at gunpoint? That's new.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's day 3! I'm almost all caught up, working on Day 6 right now so expect a few more chapters today. 
> 
> TW: This chapter does contain some blood and injuries. Nothing too major but wanted to put that out there.
> 
> Enjoy!

“Don’t make any sudden movements, Paladin.” 

Shrio froze at the words, halting his work on fixing the shield tower. A familiar feeling of a blaster pressed up against his head and he closed his eyes in frustration. 

Quiznack. 

“Shiro what’s your status?” Allura’s voice rang through his comms. 

“You are going to answer that you had a complication rise, but are taking care of it. Got it?” The harsh voice demanded from behind him.

“I need some more time.” He spoke into the comm. “The condition of the tower is worse than we thought.” 

There was a pause as his team took in his words.

“Do you need help? I’m almost done here, Hunk or I could assist.” Pidge asked. 

The butt of the blaster pressed harder against his head. 

“No, I’m ok. It isn’t anything I can’t handle. Just is going to take a few ticks longer than we thought. If I need help I’ll let you know.” 

“Roger that.” 

Shiro curses in his head as the comm goes silent once more. He didn’t have many options being held at gunpoint, and there wasn’t a way he could see keeping the comm on without tipping his captor he was doing so. The shield tower was perched on the edge of a cliff, and surround by a forrest. The only way he could run was towards the direction of his captor. He wouldn’t be fast enough to try and disarm them either, not with their hand on the trigger. If the blaster was pointed elsewhere maybe, but even with his helmet on a headshot at close range was instant death.

“Good. Take off your helmet, then put your hands behind your back. Make any sudden moves and you’re dead paladin. My bounty is worth more if you’re alive, but delivering you and your lion is enough GAC to set me for life. I know you probably don’t value your life, but if you force me to kill you I will draw away one of your friends instead.” 

Shit, ok. He could work with that. His helmet had a silent alarm built in, a little button integrated in the padding. Allura had explained it took a fingerprint scan for the alarm to actually go off, that way it wouldn’t be accidentally pressed during battle. All he had to do was trigger it as he put down his helmet, then stall for time. Hopefully his team would be able to track his suit. 

Slowly Shiro lifted up his hands towards his helmet. Telegraphing his movements, he lifted his helmet off of his head. His fingers found the silent arm and pressed down, keeping pressure as he lowered his helmet to the ground. The blaster was pushed into his head and he took the silent hint and dropped the helmet, letting it fall the rest of the way down. He then placed his hands behind his back, wincing when the cuffs the bounty hunter placed onto his hands dug into the skin on his left arm. 

Ok time to stall.

“You know that they Galra Empire won’t actually pay you the GAC?” Shiro asked. “More than likely they’ll kill you as soon as they have custody of me.” 

“Shut it.” 

The butt of the blaster came crashing down onto his head, causing Shiro to see stars. 

“I’m not stupid paladin. I know the Galra can’t be trusted. Which is why I have a little surprise of my own up my sleeve.”

“You can’t be serious.” He muttered, wincing when the blaster pressed into his, probably bleeding, headwind. 

“Do you seriously not know what shut it means? You don’t have to be in one piece you know. I will happily shoot out your knee if you say one more word.” 

Shiro shut his mouth, stoping himself from making a scathing comeback. It wouldn’t do him any good to have his knee shot up. That’d mean more time spent in the healing pods, and he hated how cold those made him feel. 

“That’s better. Now move, don’t want any of your friends checking in before we’re gone.” 

The bounty hunter grabbed him by the cuffs and rotated him to the left. Shiro grunted at the force, but took the hint and started to walk that direction towards the forrest. He made his pace slower than normal, but not slow enough to anger the bounty hunter further. 

His head was throbbing, and he could feel blood from his wound trickle down onto his forehead. His white bangs were probably stained pink right now, but he couldn’t focus on that to confirm. It was hard enough focusing on walking right now. Which probably meant he had a concussion, great. He hoped that the paladins would come soon, he wasn’t exactly in a good position to save himself. Even if he could get away from the bounty hunter without getting shot in the head, he probably wouldn’t get more than a few feet before he’d be stopped. Right now he needed to be patient. 

Rough hands grabbed at his cuff again, this time halting his movement. Shiro swayed at the force, but was able to remain standing. He looked up to see that they had ended up in a large clearing of the forrest, a small ship parked in front of him. Shit that was quick. 

“Now where did I put that blasted thing.” The bounty hunter mumbled to themselves. And Shiro felt the pressure from the blaster loosen, the hunter clearly distracted. 

No paladins yet, guess he’d have to act then. 

Using the distraction to his favor, Shiro hunched over and quickly jumped over his arms so they were now in front of him. Not giving the bounty hunter any time to react, he put all of his weight into slamming his cuffed hands against where the blaster met the bounty hunter’s hands. The blaster went flying out of their grip, so Shiro aimed for the head this time. 

The bounty hunter ducked his blow though, and he stumbled at his momentum following through. He tried to activate his arm, but whatever cuff that was attached must have disabled the weapon feature. But he had faced worse odds in the arena, and he had no qualms about fighting dirty if needed. He stumbled out of the way of a punch to his gut, and used his leg to sweep the bounty hunter off their feet. The hunter landed onto the ground hard, so Shiro took his chances and made a run for it. 

He sprinted as fast as he could towards the trees that they had just come out of. If he could just get out of the clearing he had a good shot of getting into some cover.

A shot rang out, and Shiro felt pain sear through his knee before he crumpled to the ground. He glanced at his knee and yup, he’d been shot. There wasn’t any time to lose though, so he gritted his teeth before crawling towards the forrest. Another shot rang out and the dirt to his left exploded. 

“Come now, Paladin. I grudgingly give you that your little escape attempt was cleaver. But we both know you can’t go anywhere so why don’t you stop your squirming and I won’t have to put anymore blaster holes in you.” 

No he refused to stop, he was too close to the tree line. There he could hide and-

His back was suddenly on fire. He was on the ground before he could even process the sound of the blaster fire. Huh if he lived through this he really needed to talk to Allura and Coran about the paladin armor vulnerabilities. There had to be a way to strengthen the black undersuit, especially if the bad guys are smart enough to aim there.

He willed for his body to move, to get back up and escape, but every movement caused another flash of pain to ripple through him. He heard a chuckle before a boot landed into his stomach.

“Do I have to put another shot in ya, or will you go quietly this time?”

“How about you step away from him and you may just live.” 

Allura’s voice startled Shiro. But he let out a sigh of relief that his team was here. But that relief was short lived as the bounty hunter lifted him up by his armor. An arm was wrapped around his next and he felt the blaster back on his head. His head was spinning from the pain of the movements and it took everything in him not to make a sound. 

“How about I leave with this paladin here and you won’t have to watch him get shot in the head.” The bounty hunter countered pressing the blaster harder into Shiro’s head. “He already has two holes, what’s one more.” 

Shiro could see Allura clearly now. The princess had her quarterstaff pointed at them, her face showing nothing but cold rage. Keith and Hunk were at either side of her, their bayards also pointing towards Shiro and the bounty hunter. Keith looked like he was a few seconds away from attacking the bounty hunter himself, and Hunk struggled to keep his fear and concern from showing though his mask of anger. Pidge and Lance were no where to be seen, which made Shiro think they had something planned. 

“Do that you guarantee that you will not make it off of this planet alive.” Allura’s voice was cold, and Shiro made a mental note to never truly get on the princess’s bad side. “Do not draw this out. My castleship has already taken aim at your craft. You are not escaping with one of my paladins.” 

“I don’t think you have a choice. Either I leave with him as my hostage or I shoot him dead. Something tells me you want him alive.” 

Quiznak. His team can’t do anything with this blaster to his head. If he could eliminate the possibility of himself getting shot in the head, then Shiro knew his team would quickly take down the bounty hunter.

He eyed the arm wrapped around his neck. Yeah that should do nicely. He looked back up at Allura, making sure to catch her eyes before glancing back down at the arm. Allura’s eyes widened slightly, but made no other indication that she knew what he was about to do. 

Well hopefully Lance had a shot lined up, and if Shiro knew their resident sharpshooter he did. Gathering up his remaining strength, Shiro bit down hard onto the bounty hunters arm. The hunter yelped, their arm instinctually dropping the source of pain. Shiro crashed to the ground, biting down his tongue to stop his own yell from escaping. Maybe jostling his injuries wasn’t such a good idea. Another shot rang out, and he heard the thump of a body landing onto the ground by him. 

“Shiro!”

Someone called his name, but he couldn’t figure out who or if the sound came from multiple sources. But hands gingerly turned him to face upright, and Keith’s face came into view. Huh, it probably wasn’t a good sign that he was seeing two of Keith. 

“Shiro?” Ah shit, that was Keith’s worried voice. He could never stand by and do nothing if one of his team sounded like that. 

“M’ here.” He answered, meeting where he thought Keith’s eyes were and giving him a smile. “Knew you’d all come for me.” 

Allura appeared beside Kieth, the anger from earlier melting into worry. “Yes well, we couldn’t just stand by and let them take you now could we?” 

“It’s my bad.” He said as he closed his eyes. “Got the jump on me, don’t know how they managed to sneak up.” 

“Come now that’s not your fault Shiro. I do need you to stay awake, so please keep your eyes open.” Panic leaked into Allura’s voice so Shiro followed her orders and opened up his eyes again. 

Keith was still looking at him, the kid’s worry all over his face. But Allura was looking over him, probably at one of the other Paladins. “Coran’s getting a pod prepped, we need to get him to the castle as soon as possible.” 

“I think my lion is the closest nearby. I can run to go get it.” Kieth answered. “Besides Red’s the fastest anyways.” 

“Hurry.” 

Keith gave Shiro one last look before he took off running into the forrest. Shiro watched him disappear, before letting out a gasp when he was suddenly lifted up.

“Sh- Sorry Shiro just give me a tick.” Hunk rambled. 

True to his word, Hunk was quick. Shiro was carefully lowered back down onto someone’s lap, probably Hunk’s if he had to guess. Warm hands carefully floated around his head. 

“The head wound doesn’t look too bad. But I bet he’s got some sort of concussion.” 

“Do all human’s wounds bleed that profusely?” Allura’s face was scrunched up in worry and confusion. 

“Head wounds are known to look worse than they actually are Princess. They tend to bleed a lot.” Pidge answered, her face showing up to Shiro’s left. 

“The blaster wounds however, those are a problem.” Lance took the spot Keith was at, looking at Shiro’s lower half worriedly.   
“Do we have anything we could slow the bleeding with?” 

Allura bit her lip. “No I’m afraid not, not until we can get him into the red lion.” 

“M’ fine. Tis’ just a flesh wound.” Shiro tried his best to reassure. Pidge looked down at him, eyes wide.

“You did not just quote monty python at us.” Pidge glared at him, but it lacked any heat.

“Monty- oh is he talking about the bit with the black knight? Shiro that’s not funny!” Lance said dramatically, probably for Shiro’s entertainment. 

“What? It’s appropriate.” Shiro tried to smile, but another wave of pain washed over him. His eyes closed on their own accord as a quiet groan escaped him. 

“Shiro? Common man you gotta open your eyes back up.” Hunk’s voice pulled him from the brink of unconsciousness. Although he wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to stay awake, he’d try for them. 

Shiro struggled to open his eyes again, rewarded with looks of relief once he was able to do so. His gaze settled on Lance, there was something he wanted to tell him what was... oh!

“That was a good shot, Lance.”

Lance’s face brightened at the praise. “Yeah well, they were going to shoot you if I didn’t make the shot.” 

“Shiro, how did you know that Lance had a shot lined up?” Pidge questioned. 

Shiro looked over at her. “Easy. You two weren’t” He inhaled sharply at another wave of pain. “You weren’t in sight. Figured that meant you had them flanked. Plus where else would our sharpshooter be, but lining up a shot.”

Whatever would have been said next was interrupted by the roar of a lion. Keith landed his lion in the clearing as close to Shiro as he could get. 

“I’ll take Shiro into Red, the rest of you get to your lions. I’ve had enough of this planet.” Allura ordered, gingerly picking Shiro up in a bridal carry. None of the paladins argued, and soon enough Shiro found himself inside Keith’s lion. A good thing too. He was losing the fight to stay conscious, and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could have stayed awake for them. 

“We’re in, get us out of here Keith.”

“‘Llura?” Shiro mumbled. Allura looked down at him. 

“Yes Shiro?” 

“Think m’ gonna sleep now.” Shiro closed his eyes, tucking his head into the crook of Allura’s elbow.

“Shiro? Quiznak. Shiro, you can’t sleep yet. You’ve got to-“

Allura continued to speak, but Shiro couldn’t make out what she was saying. Her voice drifted away from him as unconsciousness finally won. 


	4. Running Out of Time: Collapsed Building

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 4. Running Out of Time: Caged| Burned Alive| **Collapsed Building**  
>  A collapsed building + and injured teammate+ unknown injuries to yourself + badguys coming back your way= A horrible time for both Shiro and Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's day 4. Have a side of Lance Whump to go with your Shiro Whump. 
> 
> TW: This one has a bit more graphic description of injuries in it. Nothing we haven't seen on the show but if that's not your jam don't read. 
> 
> As always, enjoy!

Darkness surrounds Shiro when he wakes up with a gasp. The glow of his armor showed rubble surrounding him. The last thing he remembered was encoring the diplomats into the compound. Him and Lance were supposed to be their body guards while the rest of the team attempted to convince the warring faction to come to a peace talk. The building had shook as something had hit it and then... 

Shiro shot up, ignoring the pain the movement caused, and looked around. “Lance?!” He had pushed Lance out of the way of the collapsing ceiling. 

“Lance!” 

There was no answer still. Quiznack. Shiro blinked away the blood and sweat around his eyes before looking at his predicament. There was rubble covering his legs, and what looks like a support beam pinning his metal arm to the ground. His natural arm was free though, and he quickly lifted the beam enough to slip his metal arm free. 

His ribs protested the effort, and he had a feeling that one of them may have punctured a lung with how hard it was for him to catch his breath. 

That didn’t matter right now though. He needed to get the rubble off of his legs and find Lance and the diplomats. Relying heavily on his metal arm, he lifted the pieces of concrete until he could slip his legs free. 

His first attempt to stand left him feeling dizzy, and he stayed crouched down until he was steady again. He found his helmet on the ground near where he was. And from the look of it, it probably took majority of the impact to his head. The helmet was cracked almost in two, holding together by a thread. There’s no way his comms would still be working. His eyes caught the sight of one of the diplomats, dead. Shit.

A groan caught his attention and he turned to face where the sound came from.

“Lance?!” 

“S-shiro?” Lance’s voice called out, music to Shiro’s ears. He scanned the rubble, until he found white armor sticking out of a slab of rubble. 

“I’m here Lance, don’t move.” Shiro called, rushing to Lance’s side. The boy’s head was free and he could see the panic forming on Lance’s face. 

“Shiro, I can’t breathe.” 

“It’s okay Lance, you’re pinned down by this rubble it’s putting pressure on your chest.” Shiro made sure his voice was calm and free of any pain he was feeling. “I’m going to get it off of you okay, but I need to find a leaver first. Just focus on your breathing, like those techniques you showed me okay?” 

Lance met his eyes and nodded. “Right, I can do that.” Shiro smiled at him reassuringly. 

  
He scanned the nearby area, finding a piece of rebar nearby that should work for his purposes. He headed back to Lance with the rebar in hand.   
“Okay buddy, I’ve got something. I’m going to count to three then use this rebar to lift the rubble off of you. Do you think you can roll towards me once it’s off?”

Lance bit his lip before nodding. “I think so?” 

That’d have to be good enough. Shiro stuck the rebar under the rubble adjusting it until he had it a good position. “Okay, here we go. One, two, three.” He grunted as he used all of his strength to lift up the rubble. Slowly it moved up until Lance’s body was free. 

But the blue paladin let out a cry of pain, and Shiro almost dropped the rubble in surprise. “Lace?” 

“Shiro I can’t move. There’s a piece of rebar, I think it’s pinning me down.” 

Shiro let out a string of colorful curses. “Okay.” He grunted. “We’ll just have to do this the hard way then.” 

He shifted his stance, moving to grab the rubble with his hands instead of using the lever. His shoulders and ribs protested at the extra weight, but he refused to let the rubble sink. Giving it his all he slowly lifted the rubble up and off of Lance. Letting out a shout of frustration he gave one final push and the rubble flipped over to land on the other side of Lance. 

Shiro’s legs gave out on him and he found himself sitting on the floor next to Lance. The pain he’d been ignoring came back full force, reminding him that he probably should be exerting himself like that. The left of his chest hurt the most, and yeah if he hadn’t had a collapsed lung before he definitely had one now. 

He spared a glance over at Lance, the blue paladin was staring up at him in awe. “Shiro, that was amazing. How did you manage to lift that?” 

Shiro looked down at his metal arm. “Guess I’m stronger than I thought.” He shook his head turning to look back at Lance. “Okay let me find that rebar you were talking about. Does the comm on your helmet still work buddy?”

“Yeah I think so. Do you think a signal will be able to get out of here?” 

Shiro shrugged, hiding a wince. “It’s worth a shot.” He scanned Lance’s body and... there. Sure enough sticking out of his stomach was a piece of rebar. 

“Quiznak.” He muttered. “Lance it looks like that rebar is in you pretty good. I think it’s attached to the rubble below you.” 

“What are we going to do then Shiro?” Lance’s voice was soft, and Shiro knew he was trying to hide his fear. “No one is answering on the comms. 

“Well for now it’s keeping you from bleeding so I don’t want to remove it quite yet. Our position seems pretty stable, so we may have to wait for the others to dig us out. Our best bet is to try to raise them on the comms.”

Lance let out a shaky breath. “Okay, yeah. What about the diplomats?” 

Shiro shook his head. “I don’t think any of them made it.” 

“Mierda.” Lance swore. “So much for that peace talk then.”

“Something tells me that the other faction wasn’t interested in taking anyways.” Shiro grumbled, looking around them. 

“You think? I hope the others are ok.” 

“I’m sure they are Lance. I bet they’re heading this way. There’s no way Coran didn’t see what happened to the compound from the castle.” Shiro reassured.

“Yeah you’re right. I just-“ Lance cut off, eyes widening. 

“Lance?” 

“Hold on, I think I heard-“ Lance’s face lit up in relief. “Allura it’s Lance, I’m here with Shiro.” 

Shiro let out sigh. Thank goodness. He was hoping he hadn’t lied to Lance when he told him that the others were safe. Shiro let Lance chat with Allura, informing her of their situation and what happened to the diplomats. But the feeling of something bumping against his grabbed his attention back to the present. Lance was holding out the helmet, a grimace on his face. “‘Llura wants to talk with you.” 

Shiro grabbed the helmet and put it on. “Allura?”

“Shiro. No one was at our location, they lured us out here to keep the lions from protecting the compound.” Allura’s voice floated through the helemet’s speaker. “Lance told me what happened are you okay?” 

“Yeah, I’m okay. More worried about Lance.” He gave Lance a look over, not liking how pale the blue paladin was becoming. 

“Well I’m afraid I have more bad news. We’re on the other side of the planet and Coran said that the other faction is heading your way. No doubt to check for any survivors.”

Well shit. “Allura, I’m not comfortable moving Lance. Is there anyway Coran could get to us first?”

“I’m afraid not Shiro. We’re coming as fast as we can, but if Coran breaks cover then he’ll have fighters swarming him.” 

“Quiznak. Okay, we’re pretty hidden from view from anyone looking in. I’ll do what I can to get Lance stable and ready to move. How many of the other faction is heading towards us?”

“A lot, Corran guesses around twenty or so. There’s no way you can take all of them.” 

“I know, we’ll get out of here. I’ll radio once we’re out of the building, if Coran can let me know when they’re right on top of us that’d be great.”

“I’ll see what we can do. Be careful Shiro.”

Shiro turned off his side of the comm, turning to face Lance. “Lance I have an idea, but it’s not going to be fun.”

“Shiro I doubt anything you come up with can be worse than the faction catching us.” Lance answered. 

“Okay. The rebar isn’t sticking too far out, I’m going to lift you off of it. Then my arm can cauterize the wound so we stop you from bleeding out, but it’s going to hurt. I’m sorry.” 

Lance’s face wavered before he took a deep breath. “Okay. It’s noting the pods can’t fix, I’ll be okay. Just work quickly?”

Shiro nodded, “I’ll do my best.” 

Not wanting to waste anymore time, Shiro got to work. He carefully grabbed Lance by the waist, giving the bleu paladin what he hoped was a reassuring smile. Then he lifted the kid off of the rebar, Lace letting out gasp. He then let Lance rest on his shoulder, giving him a good look at the entry wound on Lance’s back. Shiro lit up his arm, using his fingers he started to pinch close the wound almost like one would do with staples. 

The smell of burnt flesh filled his nose, and Shiro did his best to filter out Lance’s screams knowing pausing would only make things worse. 

“I know buddy, you’re doing great I’m almost done. Just got one more side to do.” Shiro spoke as he worked, maneuvering Lance to where he could see the exit wound and started the process over again. 

He made quick work of it, but was careful to ensure he did not miss a spot. Finally finished, Shiro powered down his arm and glanced at Lance. The kid was out, Shiro could only hope he had passed out early in the procedure. It killed him that he had to intentionally cause one of his so much pain, but the alternative would have been death. Now they both had a chance to get out of here. But even knowing that did nothing to calm the queasiness of Shiro’s stomach. 

“Shiro, they’re almost to your position. Whatever you’re doing you must hurry!” 

Shiro took a deep breath before standing, lift Lance up in his arms. His ribs continued to protest, but there was nothing he could do until they were safe.   
“I’m on the move Allura.” 

He scanned his surroundings. The faction would be coming from the east, so his best bet would be to head the opposite direction and find some cover. Decision made, Shiro took off towards what was left of the inner city. He’d easily be able to find cover there. And if he correctly remembered the history lesson the diplomats had given there was an old park on the edge of the city. A perfect place for a pick up via lion. 

“Ok, we’re out safely princess. I’m heading for the park on the west side of the old city ruins. Meet me there for extraction.” 

“Alright, we’re almost to the lions we should be there soon.”

It didn’t take long for Shiro to reach the rendezvous point. Once he was there he found cover that would hopefully keep anyone other than the paladins from finding them. Carefully he sat down making sure Lance was lowered gently to the ground, head in Shiro’s lap, and finally took a minute to breathe. He and Lance were safe for the moment. Looking down, the kid’s face had evened out and he didn’t look to be getting any paler. Shiro watched the slow and steady rise and fall of Lance’s chest, pulling him into a lull. A few minutes of sleep couldn’t hurt...

“Shiro, we’re almost to your location.” Allura’s voice startled Shiro out of his slumber. “But I’m afraid they’ve picked up on the lions. Once we land you have to hurry on board.” 

Shiro let out a groan before composing himself. Almost. He has to get Lance safely aboard the castleship, then he can rest. 

“Copy that princess. We’re holed out towards the rundown shack.” Shiro replied, standing back up on unsteady feet. He just needed to hold out a little longer. Lance was still out, thankfully, and didn’t stir as Shiro picked him back up. 

Shiro kept watch in the sky, ready to make a run for it as soon as he spotted the lions. He heard their approach before he saw them. The red lion swooped down to the ground while green and yellow kept cover. 

As soon as the red lion landed Shiro ran it, barely making it inside before a fire of shots ran along the outside of the lion’s mouth. Allura helped steady him as he threatened to top over from his sudden stop. She took a good look at Lance, her eyes widening. She let out something low in Altean that didn’t translate.

“Get us out of here Keith!” 

“On it! Hold on everybody!” Keith called back. 

The red lion lurched, taking off to join the others in the sky. Allura helped lead Shiro over to the bench in the cargo hold. 

“What happened?” She questioned as soon as Shiro had sat down. He still held Lance close, unwilling to let go quite yet. 

“Had to get the rebar out of him so we could move. But that also required the wound to be cauterized, otherwise he would have...” Shiro coughed, tasting blood. “He would have bled out.” 

“I see. That couldn’t have been easy.” Allura cusped Lance’s cheek with her hand. “Coran has two pods already prepped, once we land the both of you can go right in.”

Allura looked at him but Shiro didn’t meet her gaze, knowing that otherwise he’d reveal just how hurt he actually was. The aches and pains that he’d ignored were making themselves known once more. There was no more hiding from it, the last of his adrenaline was fading now that the danger was gone. 

Shiro blinked and suddenly the lion had landed. Allura rushed out, no doubt to head to the bridge to wormhole them away. Another blink and Keith was beside him.   
“Comeon we need to get both of you to medbay. Do you need any help?” Keith asked casually, glancing down at Lance, knowing just how bad Shiro was at accepting help. 

Shiro shook his head. He hurt Lance, he needed to be sure that the kid was safe in a pod. “No I’ve got it.” He insisted. Keith gave him a look but backed off. But Shiro had a feeling he’d hover close by just in case. 

Nevertheless, he made his way into the medbay and followed Coran’s instructions to place Lance on the bed. Coran worked quickly, removing the blue paladin armor and getting Lance into the cryosuit. Before Shiro knew it Lance was sleeping away in a pod, finally safe.

Things were starting to get fuzzy and Shiro’s breathing had begun to wheeze. He looked up sharply when hands grabbed his shoulders. Coran was saying something to him, but he had no idea what. He coughed himself into a fit, staring at his hands when they came back bloody. Huh. Guess that collapsed lung was getting worse. 

As if on cue, his legs gave out on him. Someone yelped, catching him before he could hit the ground.

“-iro!” 

“Coran wh- to him?”

The same hands lifted him easily onto the same bed Lance had been on. Must be Coran then, but Shiro didn’t know for certain since his eyes were closed. 

“Quiz- collapsed lung- and assortment of- injuries. -eeds to- pod- now!” 

There was a flurry of panic around him, and he should feel guilty for being the cause of it, but Shiro couldn’t feel anything but cold. 

“-oing- shock. Idiot pro- overexer- self.”

Shiro lost track of time, fading in and out of consciousness. The last thing he remembers is the sound of a pod closing and a different kind of cold that promised healing.


	5. Where Do You Think You're Going?: Failed Escape (Continued from Chapter 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 5. Where Do You Think You’re Going?: On the Run| **Failed Escape** | Rescue   
> (A continuation of chapter 1)
> 
> Shiro refuses to sit still while his team could actively be in danger. All he has to do is figure out a way out of his restraints and escape this base they have him held at.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hurray for the triple update! I should be all caught up tomorrow so cross fingers that I'm able to do so.
> 
> Sleep_Deprived37 wondered if there would be a part 2 for chapter 1. Turns out my muse decided that I need another chapter to finish this all up after this one, so expect a part 3 sometime soon. 
> 
> It's a shorter one than the previous two chapters, but I'm satisfied at the stopping point for this chapter. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Commander Lok may have been smart, but her galran lackies were anything but. 

“Please. I need to use the bathroom.” Shiro poured all of his desperation into his voice. The galran soldier needed to buy his act of helplessness. And with his armor removed, his arm disabled, and his hands and feet restrained Shiro definitely looked the part.

The soldier looked at him before shrugging. “Fine. The inhibitor stays on. Try anything funny and you’ll regret it.” 

Shiro’s lifted to his feet, restraints removed from his legs and his arm restraints unchained from the wall, before being marched outside his cell. The galran soldier stays behind him, gun out and pointing at him. The compound they were holding him at didn’t seem to be of galran design, meaning they took ahold of this place when they conquered the planet. To Shiro’s benefit, it meant they were probably just as unfamiliar with the layout as he was. 

They stopped in front of a door. Shiro was roughly pushed against the wall and his restraints removed. The door opens to reveal a small bathroom and he is pushed inside. 

“You’ve got 5 minutes prisoner.” 

The door closes, leaving Shiro alone. Heh what an idiot. He looked around the small room, searching for any windows or ways to escape. There were no windows, but up above the alien looking toilet was a vent cover. That would be his best chance of escape. It looked like the vent could easily be opened, so all Shiro needed to do was create enough noise to hide his intentions. He pressed one of the buttons on the toilet, and sure enough it flushed just like a regular human toilet. Shiro next turned on the water in the skin, then got to work. 

Standing on the toilet he was just tall enough to reach the vent. He quickly opened the vent cover, making sure to place it inside the vents, before he grabbed the edges of the opening. He’d never been more thankful that Adam had insisted they train together on the pull-up bars than he was now. Shiro lifted himself up, and shimmied his way inside the vent. Once he was securely inside, he put the vent cover back on to cover his tracks. Hopefully the guard wasn’t smart enough to realize where he went right away. Moving as stealthily as possible, he began to crawl his way through the vents. 

Shiro hadn’t been crawling for more than five minutes when the alarm was raised. Damn it, he may have to fight his way out. There was another vent cover ahead of him, maybe he’d luck out and find the weapons room. 

“-do you mean he’s escaped?” 

Oh, that was Lok’s voice. Shiro moved quietly until he could look through the vent cover. Commander Lok was in some sort of communications room, standing angrily over one of her galran soldiers. 

“How did he get out of his restraints and out of his cell?” Lok demanded. 

“Well, ma’am. Apparently the prisoner asked Vos permission to use the bathroom. Vos undid its restraints and locked the bathroom door. Apparently it took too long, when Vos went to inspect it was gone.” 

Lok pinched her nose. “You’re saying that champion somehow managed to escape a locked room without anyone noticing.” She spat out. “Do I have to do everything myself?” 

Lok pushed the two soldiers aside as she stormed out of the room. The two galran soldiers shared a look before following their commander. 

Shiro waited a few moments, making sure no one was left in the room. Then he removed the vent crate, lowering himself out and onto the floor. He landed in a crouch, scanning the area for any enemies before standing. 

“This is a communications room maybe...” He muttered to himself looking around until. 

There, a comm station where Lok had been standing. From the looks of it he should be able to call the castle and warn them of the ambush. 

Normally the paladin’s comms were connected directly to the castle network, but there was a frequency used in emergencies that would go straight to the bridge. Typing in the frequency, and the code, Shiro scanned for any sign of Lok or her soldiers going back. 

“Who is this, this is a secure channel. Identify yourself at once!” Allura’s voice cut through. She did not seem happy.

“Princess it’s Shiro. Look I don’t know how much time I have, they could be back any tick.”

“Shiro?! Thank the ancients are you alright? What happened? We lost contact with you vargas ago.” 

“That contact sold me out to the galra. I don’t know where I am, but they’ve got me at a nearby compound. If I had to guess I’m still on planet. But listen. This commander Lok. She’s planning on a trap to lure you in and capture the lions. You need to-“ 

Suddenly the comm station goes dark. Shiro swears, looking up just in time to see Lok firing her gun at him. There’s no time to doge and the blast hits him dead on his right shoulder. He collapses to the floor, his flesh hand attempting to cover the blood coming from his wound.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Lok asks, as her soldiers surround Shiro, weapons ready to fire at him. 

“I must admit that was cleaver of you champion, escaping through the vents and warning your friends. When my sentries warned me of a rogue signal being sent out I was surprised at your intelligence. But you’ve merely accelerated my plans. Your friends will come, and I don’t even have to send out a message.” 

Shiro glares at her as the soldiers pick him back up and re-restrain him, wincing when the blaster wound shifts as his arms are placed behind his back. “It’s not going to work. Whatever trap you set up will fail.”

Lok smiles at him, motioning for the guards to bring him closer to her. “Will it? I’m sure if I give them a little... incentive they’ll come rushing in recklessly. After all, if their precious black paladin is teetering on the edge of life and death and any wasted time could mean you dying well... they won’t have much time to plan will they?” 

She slaps Shiro, the force of it knocking him to the ground. “Muzzle him, then take him to the interrogation chambers. Seems like I’ve got some work to do before the paladins get here. Can’t exactly send them into a panic if their leader is still in one piece."


	6. Please... "Get it Out"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 6. Please...: **“Get it out”** |No more |”Stop please”
> 
> Shiro hasn't had a medical scan since he was captured by the Galran Empire. Good thing Coran is insisting all of the Paladins get a checkup before their next big mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well folks I've got a double update for you. I'm all caught up now, just gotta finish Day 8. Hope you enjoy!

“Alright everyone it’s about time we’ve scanned you lot in the medbay.” Coran came into what Shiro and the other paladins were using as a lounge area. “We need to have a baseline incase any of you gets sick or hurt.” 

Lance groaned, sliding down further into the couch. “Ah man Coran can’t it wait? We just finished training.” 

The rest of the younger paladins called out similar protests as Lance, Coran and Shiro trading a look with each other.

  
“If Coran says that it’s important then we should get it done sooner than later.” Shiro interjects, the other paladins looking at him with some version of betrayal. “Besides, the sooner we get it done the better. Our health and safety isn’t something we should put off.”

“Right exactly Shiro. Common now, I’ll have you in and out quicker than a klanmuirl burrowing down for the winter.” 

The others looked at him confused, but Shiro merely shrugged. He had no idea what a klanmuirl was or how long that was supposed to mean. He jerked his head towards Coran, before following the older Altean towards the medbay. There was a chorus of groans behind him, but Shiro knew that the others would follow. 

* * *

  
Shiro looked up from the report he was reading when he heard the doors to the medbay open. Coran was at the doorframe, ushering Keith out of the medbay. The rest of the paladins have already taken their turn, each one escaping as soon as they were able to incase Coran decided more tests were needed. 

“Ok Shiro, your turn.” 

Shiro set the pad to the side and entered the medbay, pushing down his nerves. After years of doctors and hospitals because of his disease, then the time spent in Haggar’s lab, he had a hatred for anything medical. But that wasn’t Coran’s fault, and this needed to be done. Shiro’s year in captivity was still mostly a blur. He knew they took his arm, but Shiro had no idea what else they did to him that year.

He sat down on the med bed the scanner was placed by and took a deep breath, focusing on keeping his hands from fidgeting. Right, time to get this over with. Coran gave his knee a squeeze, the Altean had a knowing look in his eyes when Shiro looked up at him. 

The scan itself was fairly non-intrusive. A bright blue laser light ran its way down his body, before making its way back up to his head. The console Coran was at beeped and the light turned off. The elder man’s eyes were focused on the scan, and Shiro felt his stomach drop when Coran’s face scrunched up in worry. 

“Everything okay Coran?” 

Coran didn’t answer right away, and the panic rose inside of him.

“Erm yeah, Number one. Seems the scan has picked up foreign material.” Coran turned the screen around so Shiro could see. Two white objects were located in the back of the top of his neck. Shiro ran a hand along his neck, searching for any scar or indication that something had happened.

“I... what is it Coran?” Shiro tried to keep his panic from leaking into his voice. 

“I’m not sure, not yet anyways. I need to do a more detailed scan of that area first.” Coran soothed. “We’ll get to the bottom of this Shiro I promise.”

Coran turned the screen back around before pressing a few buttons on the console. The scanner came to life and moved in closer to Shiro. “Stay still Number One. It’s going to get a local scan and needs to be closer in.” 

Shiro nodded and did his best to ignore the machine practically touching the back of his neck. A moment passed, Shiro unable to see the blue light this time, before the console beep and the scanner reset to its normal position. 

  
“Ok, let’s see what we’re dealing with.” Coran said as he opened up the new scan onto his screen. Shiro fidgeted with the bed’s linens, keeping watch on Coran. The elder Altean’s face went pale, looking back up at Shiro worriedly. 

“Coran?” Shiro’s voice sounded small to him. Like he was 15 again receiving his terminal diagnosis for the first time again. 

“Shiro... they’re explosive devices.” 

His hand subconsciously shot up to the back of his neck again.   
“I...” It felt like the wind was knocked out of him. His head was spinning with the new information, his body growing numb in the process. Bombs... they could have... oh fuck...

“Shiro, lad, breathe.” 

Coran’s voice shook him from his thoughts. Oh, when had it become hard for him to breathe? He blinked and suddenly Coran was in front of him. The Altean’s breathes were exaggerated, making sure Shiro kept eye contact with him. Shiro did his best to match Coran, taking in deep shaky breathes. 

“That’s good. Keep it up now.” Coran soothed, continuing to keep his own breathing slow and steady. 

Finally it felt like Shiro could think again. He still felt nauseous and feint, but his breathing had returned somewhat normal.

“Coran, please. Get it-get them out.” He practically begged, not caring how he looked at the moment. 

“They’re coming out, I give my word Shiro. Luckily they’re not active so it’ll be an easy procedure to remove them. A few vargas in the pods and you’ll be right as rain.” There was a fire to the Altean’s eyes, a protectiveness Shiro hadn’t seen anyone show for him in a very long time. 

“I...” Shiro took another deep breath. “Thank you, Coran.” 

Coran gave his shoulder a squeeze. “Not a problem Number One. We’ll get those things out of you.”

Shiro shuttered, thinking of what could have happened if they hadn’t caught those devices in time. What else did the Galra do to him that they didn’t know about? 


	7. I've Got You: Carrying (Continuation of Ch1 and Ch5)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 7. I’ve Got You: Support| **Carrying** | Enemy to Caretaker   
> (Continuation of ch1 and 5) 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here part two of the update, and the conclusion to Ch 1 and 5.   
> TW: Off screen and a bit of on screen torture

Every inch of his body was in pain. Shiro wasn’t sure how long he had spent with Lok in that interrogation chamber, but the commander made sure every moment was more painful than the next. He didn’t need a mirror to know that he looked as awful as he felt. When Lok had finally tired of torturing him, she had her soldiers drag him to a new cell. He had been tossed inside, no one even bothering to re-restrain him. 

Not like he could have taken advantage of that. He didn’t have the strength to even lift his head, let alone any other part of his body. Shiro was glad that he hadn’t landed on his back, his armor undersuit was shredded and soaked with blood from the whip marks on his back, otherwise he wasn’t sure if he could have managed to roll onto his side to prevent making the wounds worse. 

He coughed, grimacing as the copper twang of blood filled his mouth. His ribs, no scratch that his everything, hadn’t appreciated the movement. A shiver racked through him, the cold spreading through his body. Shiro curled himself into as tight of a ball that he could manage, and allowed himself to drift off. 

* * *

Pain exploded into his side, abruptly dragging Shiro out of the shaky sleep he had finally found. He curled up tighter, hands going to protect his head as a groan escaped his lips. 

“Leave him alone!”   
“You’re going to pay for that.”   
“Shiro, Shiro can you hear us?”

Multiple voices flooded his ears at once, and it took Shiro several moments to recognize them as his team. But before he could process anything else someone grabbed a handful of his hair and lifted him off of the ground. 

“Come now champion, open your eyes and say hello. You have some very anxious people waiting to hear from you.” Lok’s voice was close enough he could feel her breath on his left ear.

His feet dangled unable to touch the ground, but there was no way they could have held his weight even if he wasn’t held several feet into the air. It was a struggle to open his eyes, his right eye barely moving a few inches because of the swelling. His family’s faces swarmed in front of him. There was some sort of communication screen in the room, all of the paladins and the Alteans on the bridge of the castle if their background was anything to go by. He couldn’t get his vision to focus enough to see their expressions, yet judging by sound of their voices they were not happy. 

He wanted to say something, anything, to reassure them that he was okay. But no noise made it past his lips, the muzzle muffling any sound he could make. 

“There you see, it’s still alive... for now.” Lok taunted. “Although I’m not sure how much more of my hospitality it can take. It’d be a shame if your friend died before you had the chance to warp over to this sector.” 

She let go of her hold on Shiro’s hair, and he crashed to the ground near her feet. 

“You’ve made your point. What do you want?” Oh that was Allura. She sounded angrier than Shiro has ever heard her before. 

“Please you know exactly what I want. Bring me the lions and I will return the black paladin back to you alive. If you refuse... then you will watch as I slowly bleed the life out of it.” 

Something touched Shiro’s side and his mind went white, excruciating pain shooting through him. He remembered this pain from the gladiator rings, Lok had gotten her hands on a control stick. The stick was removed from his side, but his body still convulsed from the aftershocks. He’d forgotten how much those sticks hurt.

“I’m sending you the coordinates. Only once all of your lions are accounted for will the coordinates for you to pick up the black paladin be sent. Do not test me, I will not hesitate to kill it. I’m sure Haggar would still get some use from experiments on Champion’s corpse. You have one varga to reach the location.” 

The comm screen went black, leaving Shiro along with the galran commander. Lok crouched down over him, letting Shiro look her in the eyes. “It’s a shame our time is almost up, little champion. I have enjoyed your stay, haven’t you?” 

Shiro glared up at her and she laughed, patting him on the head. “Don’t you worry, you’ll still be able to watch your friends die. If you live long enough that is. Who knows, maybe you’ll surprise me and survive this. I had hoped to watch you back in the gladiator rings after all.” 

Lok stood back up, brushing off invisible dirt from her armor. “Well I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve got some paladins to kill. So long Champion.” 

He heard the cell door open and then close again, left to darkness once more. This time he couldn’t find the strength to even curl up, instead he closed his eyes praying to any gods that would listen to protect his family once he was gone.

* * *

Shiro drifted in and out of consciousness, never truly staying awake for very long. But this time, when he found himself slightly aware of the world, something felt different. He vaguely heard a shrill sound going off in the background. Was that the alarm? He couldn’t be sure, and not enough of him was aware enough to attempt to check it out. He drifted back into a state of not-quite-awake but also not-truly-asleep. 

“Oh.. oh no.. oh quiznack. Guys I’ve got him!” 

Was that... no it couldn’t be. 

Two tiny fingers pressed into his neck, bringing Shiro closer to awareness. 

“Pidge, you said you got him?”

“Hunk, get in here. It’s... he’s alive but I don’t think... you’re going to have to carry him.” 

“What about the?” 

“We have to leave it on for now, too complicated. There’s not enough time to get it off.”

A larger hand gently brushed his dirty bangs out of his face. Shiro groaned, scrunching up his face. 

“Shh Shiro, it’s ok. It’s just Hunk and me, Pidge.” The first voice, Pidge, comforted. “Hunk we gotta move, Lance said that the commander left from the ambush and is heading our way.” 

“Okay, quiznack.” Hunk mumbled. “Shiro, I’m not sure how aware you are right now but I’m going to pick you up okay.” 

Hands slipped under him, and Shiro found himself lifted off of the ground. A whine escaped him, Hunk rambling various forms of apologies. He blinked open his working eye, catching a yellow and white blurry head looking down at him. Hunk gave him what he thought was a smile. 

“I’ve got you Shiro, we’re getting you out of here.”

Oh. They found him. Shiro let out a sigh, relaxing into Hunk’s hold and closing his eye once more. He trusted Hunk and Pidge, they’d get him out safely. He could rest. 


	8. Where Did Everybody Go?: Abandoned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 8. Where Did Everybody go?: “Don’t Say Goodbye”| **Abandoned** | Isolation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, here's day 8 and only a day late lol. Working on day 9 with the goal of posting it later tonight. 
> 
> Hope y'all enjoy!

Ok note to self, don’t split up the team to where only one paladin is working with the local forces. Shiro cursed mentally, his head still spinning from the explosion. 

The local galran forces had amounted a surprise attack against Voltron and the planet’s resistance during what was supposed to be a simple recon mission. They had needed three separate teams for the mission to work. So Shiro had sent Pidge and Lance with one team and Hunk and Keith with the other, leaving himself to go with the third party alone. 

He was really regretting that right about now. 

Halfway to his recon team’s scouting location the ambush had been sprung, and soon Shiro found himself fighting a squadron of galran soldiers. Their comms weren’t working, more than likely being jammed, so there was no way to call for help and the resistance force was clearly unequipped to handle an out and out fight. 

The resistant team leader called for a retreat so Shiro stuck to the back of the pack, using his armor shield to protect the backs of the retreating resistance members. 

But he got sloppy. While reaching to protect one of their scientists he took a shot to his stomach, knocking him to the ground for a moment. Pushing down the pain, Shiro did his best to protect what was left of the team as they ran into the nearby forrest. 

By the time they had finally shaken off the soldiers and had found a place to catch their breath, Shiro was feeling the effects of the blaster wound. He let himself sink to the forrest floor, leaning on a nearby tree. 

The scientist he had protect earlier hovered over him. “Chief the paladin has been hit.” 

The leader of the resistance’s head turned towards them, a frown on its face. “How bad?” He asked as he made his way over to Shiro. 

The scientist put a paw onto Shiro’s wound, Shiro gritting his teeth to stop any noise from coming out. She gasped when her fur was stained red with her blood. “Pretty bad. I think the galra gun’s energy was increased to cut through our thick skin. The black paladin is much more flimsy than us, so that blast did a lot of damage. He needs medical attention soon.” 

Quiznak, that didn’t sound good. They were a good hour away from the base and Shiro wasn’t sure if there were any medical supplies on hand that would work with human physiology. He could tell that the resistance leader had come to the same conclusion as Shiro had. The dog-like alien’s brows were scrunched up. 

“Do you think he’l last the trip back to the base?”

The scientist shook her head. “I don’t know. The paladins are vastly different than us there’s no telling.”

Shiro studded the leader’s face, a sinking feeling in his gut. There was no way he would be able to walk without assistance back to the base, and if the team did not complete their recon mission then the planned attack on the galra outpost would have to be postponed.

“Then we leave him here.” 

The scientist’s eyes widened at his words. “But sir, no. We can’t just leave him here to die.” 

“We can and we will. We must complete our mission, whatever it takes.” The leader met Shiro’s eyes, a cold resignation on his face. “We continue without the black paladin.” 

There was no way Shiro could stand up on his own, let alone have the strength to argue the decision. He closed his eyes as a wave of pain ran through him. When he opened them back up the team was gone. 

Shiro knew he needed to get up. To try and make his way back to the base, or at least far enough way from the jamming signal that he could radio for help. But every time he tried to grasp for the strength to do so another wave of pain would strike. He looked down at his side only to see half of his black undersuit stained a darker color. Huh, guess the scientist was right. The hit was worse than he thought it had been at first. 

He tilted his head back until it hit the tree. Staring up at the forrest top Shiro’s eyes fluttered shut, the decision to stay conscious taken away from him. 

* * *

  
The roar of a lion woke Shiro up with a start. He gasped as his body jolted, looking around frantically for the location of the noise. 

“You were right Allura, Black came straight to this location. She wouldn’t have done that if Shiro wasn’t in danger. I’m investigating now.” 

Shiro would recognize that voice anywhere. “Keith.” He managed to croak out. 

There was rustling from the trees to his right, before a white and red figure emerged. 

“Shiro!” Keith shouted, sprinting over to him. Shiro attempted to give him a smile but if Keith’s worried expression was any indication, he had failed. 

“Hey. Fancy seeing you here.” 

“Shiro.” Keith breathed out. “You’re hurt. What are you doing here?”

“T-thought I’d enjoy the scenery you know?” At Keith’s glare his shoulders dropped. “We were ambushed. I got hit trying to cover the retreat.” 

“So they just left you here!” Keith furiously snarled. Shiro opened his mouth to respond but instead he let out a gasp when Keith put pressure on his wound.

“Allura I found Shiro. He’s hurt, bad. They just left him here in the forrest.” There was a pause, no doubt Allura speaking to Keith over the comm. “Yeah, I’ll get him to the castle on Red. I think Black will follow us. Give those idiots hell for me.”

Keith looked down at Shiro. “I’m going to need your help here Shiro. Once you’re standing I can support you to red, okay?”

Shiro nodded. “Okay.” He wasn’t sure if he could support any of his weight, but for Keith he’d try. 

It was challenging trying to get back onto his feet, Keith having caught him from topping back over several times before he was shakily leaning onto his friend. The few feet to the red lion felt like miles, but somehow Keith managed to practically support all of his weight all the way to red’s cockpit. He set Shiro down gently, sparing one more look before he rushed to red’s controls. The lion took off wiht a jerk as Keith threw everything into speed rather than control. 

Shiro closed his eyes, the trek back to the lion taking away what little strength he had left. It was fine anways, Keith had him. He could afford to get a head start on sleeping away this injury. 


	9. For the Greater Good: "Take Me Instead"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 9. For the Greater Good: **“Take Me Instead”** | “Run!”| Ritual Sacrifice
> 
> Shiro knew his worth. Knew that he had limited time left in the universe. Commander Holt and Matt had family back on Earth, lives to go back to. If he spent his last days protecting them, so that they could one day return to Earth, then so be it. There were worse ways to die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's day 9, and with time to spare lol. There were so many ways this prompt could have been taken, but my mind kept wandering back to the first time we see Shiro fight in the gladiator arena and thus this was born. 
> 
> Hope you enojy!

When Matt and Shiro had joked around about humanity meeting aliens, Shiro never would have imagined it going like this. 

After pleading to deaf ears that he and his cremates were peaceful and receiving a blow to his head for his troubles, Shiro awoken to the sensation of being dragged. 

What a wakeup that had been, the strange beings staring out of their cell opening and the millions of cells right outside the hallway window. If his head hadn’t been throbbing, he would have been certain that it was all a nightmare. 

Matt and Commander Holt were shoved into their cell first, followed by Shiro tossed in by the robotic sentries. 

“Shiro, are you alright?” Matt was at his side the moment the cell door had closed, helping Shiro to his feet. 

“Yeah. I’m ok.” Shiro reassured his friend, turning to face both Math and Commander Holt.   
“What are we going to do, sir?” 

The commander pulled off his helmet. The elder Holt giving Shiro a once over, making sure that he wasn’t lying about his health. “We need to see what information we can gather about who captured us. Earth needs to be warned about a potential invasion.” 

Shiro and Matt shared a look of horror.   
“Dad, you don’t think that...” 

“I don’t know son. The possibility is there though.”

It was silent for a moment, the horrifying realization starting to sink in for all three humans.   
“What do you think they’re going to do with us?” Matt asked quietly.

“I overheard something earlier.” Shiro admired when Commander Holt didn’t immediately answer. “They want to know what we know.” 

Shiro had already made up his mind that he’d do everything he could to get these aliens to take him first. Commander Holt may be the one in charge of the mission, but as the only pilot it was Shiro’s job to keep the scientists safe. And of the three, he was the one with the expiration date. 

So when the sentries came back, it was a no brainier for Shiro to step in front of Commander Holt and let himself be taken instead. From the look on the commander’s face though, Shiro could expect to hear about that later. 

Whatever these cat-like aliens threw at him, he could take it. Especially if it meant that Matt and his father were safe (or as safe as they could possibly be all things considering). 

* * *

  
Shiro had lost track of how many days they’ve been prisoners of the Galra. But the commander had guessed it’s been weeks, maybe even a few months. They had stopped with the interrogations, much to the trio’s relief, so the visits to their cell have been waning.

After the first session the sentries had brought Shiro back unconscious. Comm-Sam (“Just call me Sam Shiro, titles are meaningless here.”) had insisted that Shiro never try something like that again. Shiro had shook his head, insisting that it was the best for everyone. But Matt had sided with his father, so no matter how hard Shiro had tried to shoulder majority of he interrogations the Holts found a way to help carry the burden. They also had been processed, given prisoner garb and medical checks. 

But today, something felt different. Instead of sentries bringing their food, two actual guards showed up. The universal translators that had been given to them translated the strange language they spoke, but Shiro often found himself wishing he didn’t know what they were saying. 

“Bring out the younger two, the older one wouldn’t be entertaining to watch. He’ll be sent to the work camp with the other weaklings.” One of the guards ordered, looking down on Shiro and the others like they were nothing. The other two came into the cell, each grabbing Shiro and Matt, and dragged their prisoners away. Shiro watched with horror as Sam was left behind in the cell and he and Matt were taken away. 

They were put in a line of other prisoners, Matt in front of the group and Shiro behind him. None of the other aliens spoke with them, but he could hear their mummers. Apparently they were being taken to the gladiator arenas to fight. 

They stopped at the end of a hallway, two sentries and the largest galran Shiro has seen of date operating what he assumed was a door into the arena. 

“Welcome to the arena weaklings.” The large galran spoke, his voice booming. “You will be given a weapon at the beginning of the match, this is the only weapon you will be given. Lucky for you this is a slaughter match, you are only expected to defeat- not kill- your opponent. But Myzax will not give you the same courtesy. You will go, one by one, until there is either none of you left or one of you impresses the Emperor. We’ll start with you, puny thing.” 

One of his fat finger was pointed at Matt, whose eyes widened in horror. No, this couldn’t be happening. 

The door to the arena opened and the smell of death and sounds of a crowd overwhelmed Shiro’s senses. 

A large monster awaited in the middle of the arena. A purple orb rotated around it before landing onto the handle it was holding. That must be Myzax. 

“I’m not going to make it. I’ll never see my family again.” Matt’s voice shook. 

“You can do this.” Shiro tried to encourage. But they both knew it was an empty promise. 

The lights shined down onto the group and Matt gasped, taking a step back. One of the sentries held out some sort of sword, handle pointing towards Matt. 

No. He couldn’t just sit around and watch his friend die. Shiro needed to do something, but what...

Oh...

He eyed the weapon being offered out. That might just work... He could only hope Matt would live long enough to forgive him. 

Shiro lunged for the weapon, putting all of his energy into selling the act. 

“This is my fight! I want blood!” 

Matt clutched his injured leg. He looked up at Shiro, horror overtaking him as he realized what Shiro was planning. Shiro broke the act, giving his friend one last smile.   
“Take care of your father.” 

_I’m sorry._

He was dragged away before he could say anything else. Shiro took one more look at his friend, before he was pushed into the arena to meet his fate. 

* * *

  
The fight was a blur, but eventually Shiro found himself standing over Myzax’s unconscious body victorious. The crowd was cheering and shouting. The word Champion was repeated over and over again, but Shiro was too numb to pay attention to what was being said. 

When he was marched back to his old cell he found it empty. Both Sam and Matt were nowhere to be seen. Shiro could only pray that meant his gamble had worked, and Matt was being sent away to the work camps with his father. 


	10. They Look so Pretty When They Bleed: Blood Loss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 10. They Look so Pretty When They Bleed: **Blood Loss** | Internal Bleeding| Trail of Blood
> 
> Every wonder how Shiro lost his arm? This is my take on the subject.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this? A chapter posted on time? I'm surprised myself lol. 
> 
> TW: Blood, a somewhat graphic amputation, and an on screen character death. I'm sure you know where I'm going with this.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Shiro has lost track of his time here in the gladiator arena. Ever since he had defeated Myzax and was branded Champion, he has been forced to fight harder and harder opponents. Most matches were to the death, no matter how hard Shiro tired to avoid killing someone always died. 

The worse fights were when he was pitted against one of the newer additions to the arena. 

And then there were fights like this. Where some of the arena’s top patrons paid to see certain fighters battle, have certain conditions to the fight.

Shiro wasn’t sure what species this alien was that he had to fight. They were smaller than him, agile, covered in scales, with a razor sharp tail. They had no weapon given to it that he could see, but that didn’t make them any less dangerous. 

“This fight will be to the death, vrepit sa!” 

The crowd in the arena went wild as the familiar horn blew, signaling the beginning of the fight. Shiro raised his weapon, studying his opponent.

They striked first, slashing their tail at him. Shiro parried with his sword, dodging the return strike as well. He didn’t give the alien time to mount another attack, instead he went on the offense lunging at them with his sword. His strike was blocked by the tail, and he found himself having to lunge back from another swipe. A stinging feeling in his stomach told him he hadn’t reacted quick enough. A shallow cut that hardly bled, but the audience let out another round of cheers at the first blood. 

It was clear he wouldn’t be able to use his usual tactics against this opponent. Normally Shiro would have used his own size and quickness against the larger foes he’d face, but this lizard-like alien was smaller than him. He needed to stay out of range of their tail, but still somehow manage to get a blow to their body. 

It was a dance of strikes and doges. Feint an attack here, duck from the tail, then strike where they were vulnerable. Parry the tail, block the blow aimed towards their face, focus on the tail and where its position was in relation to him. 

Halfway through the match the alien changed their attacks, instead Shiro found the tail wrapped around his leg. He was lifted off of the ground and thrown clear across the arena. Shiro collided with one of the pillars, cracking the stone. He landed on his back, the wind knocked out of him. His leg where the tail had grabbed him was bleeding now, a circular cut spanning from his knee to the ankle. 

Shiro wasn’t given any time to recover, quickly having to roll out of the way of a jab from the tail. He got to his feet, managing to swipe up the scales on his opponents side while he momentarily flanked them. The alien yowled, a blue thick blood coming from the cut. Guess his sword was sharp enough to cut through the scales. 

It seemed his blow only made the alien angrier. They lashed out in a fury of slashes. Shiro did his best to parry what he could but several of the blows hit home, slicing up his arm and side. The tail swung down at his head, and he brought his sword up to meet it. They were locked in a battle of strength, Shiro struggling to fend off the tail from slicing up his face. But the alien’s focus was all on forcing down their tail. Shiro lashed out, aiming a kick to their knee. He heard a crunch at contact and saw the alien’s knee give out from the pressure. They hissed at him, forced to retreat from their attack giving Shiro a moment to catch his breath. 

His opponent was good, Shiro had to hand it to them. But this was about survival, and he refused to die. If he wanted to win this battle, he would have to do something risky. By damaging the alien’s right knee they would now be more protective of their right side. He might be able to land an attack to their left side. Switching his sword from his right hand to his left, Shiro prepared to attack.

Letting out a shout, he lunged for the alien. He dodged to the left from the tail swipe coming straight at him, but wasn’t able to completely avoid the strike. His right arm lit up on fire, but he couldn’t focus on that now. His opponent was open and vulnerable from their last attack. With all the force Shiro could mutter he stabbed his sword into the alien’s chest. They let out a garbled yell before topping to the ground. More of their blue blood gushed out of the wound and Shiro watched as the alien drew its last breath. 

It was silent in the arena for a moment before the crowd erupted, cheering his given arena name. 

But the pain on his right side refused to be ignored any longer. Shiro looked down to his arm, or what was left of it. His eyes widened in shock. Most of his arm was gone, leaving exposed muscle and bone several inches above his elbow. Looking further to his right, Shiro could see his severed arm on the ground. 

Oh shit. He was bleeding, heavily. 

Shiro’s legs gave out on him and he crashed to the blood stained ground of the arena. Everything around him was a haze, the pain from the amputation having faded into the background. Perhaps this is where he would die afterall. He only hoped Keith and Adam could forgive him for not coming back to them.

* * *

He came to on a metal table, vaguely recognizing the room as the druid’s lab. Haggar loomed over him, his severed arm in her hands. 

“Tsk. Can’t have you dying on us yet, Champion. It’s a shame, I had hoped to study you more before altering your body but you leave me no choice.” The witch spoke to him, galran scientists working around her. “No matter, this arm will be the prototype test for Commander Sendak’s new upgrade. With it, you will be near unstoppable. Perhaps we can get use out of you besides the arena fights.” 

Haggar put his arm on a table that was rolled up by a scientist and picked up a syringe. She floated right to Shiro’s side, sticking the needle into his neck. Shiro let out a gasp, the sedative starting to work its way in his system. 

Long claws caressed his cheek.  
“Yes, you will become the Empire’s greatest weapon yet. Rest now Champion. I will take good care of you.”

Horror filled him at the witch’s words. But he was unable to do or say anything. Instead the darkness claimed him, Haggar’s yellow eyes following him into his dreams. 


	11. PSYCH 101: Defiance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 11 PSYCH 101: **Defiance** | Struggling| Crying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all, sorry for the short absense grad school's picked up with a few tests this weekend and this week so I'm gonig to be more sparatic with updates for a bit.
> 
> Hope you enjoy this chapter!

They were starving him. Shiro was sure of it. 

There was no real way to track time in the arena, so he did his best to track cycle patterns. He was usually fed twice a cycle, once when he woke up and once in the evening (usually after a fight if he had one that cycle). He would be in his cell for most of the cycle unless there was a fight or some sort of special event for the patrons of the arena. He only fought once per cycle, and usually fought several cycles in a row before getting a small break. 

The first time Shiro wasn’t sure if they forgot to feed him, or if the fight had been pushed up. But when he was woken up for another fight with no food Shiro was growing concerned. He was supposed to be their champion, how did they expect him to fight without food? (Thankfully he still had a constant supply of water in his cell). He knew that he could go several weeks without food, but each day without would severely weaken him. 

It had been five days of this before he caught onto why they were starving him. 

The fight was supposed to be a death match, but Shiro had once again refused to kill his opponent once he had beat them. The crowd’s boos were familiar at this point, and it gave Shiro a grim satisfaction to defy his captor’s entertainment. Two galran guards had dragged him away from the arena, manhandling him roughly in the process. They had thrown him into his cell, another cycle without food, before one of them sneered. 

“That’s another few quintants without sustenance. Keep this up and you’ll be thinner than a unilu.” 

“Don’t know why it keeps this facade up, it’s not like the loser isn’t killed the very next match they’re in.” The other galran protested.

“Eh let it protest. It’ll make for an interesting match once it can’t even hold a weapon properly.” 

The two guards left his cell still locked in debate, leaving Shiro with more than the queasiness of his stomach. 

So they were going to continue to starve him until he killed in the arena. Shit. 

He didn’t want to die of starvation, or be slaughtered in the arena when he could barely defend himself, but he refused to become the killer monster that the arena wanted him to be. 

Shiro always knew that he was on a time limit, but he never would have imagined that this would be what took him out. 

The fights continued, and he could feel himself grow weaker and weaker each passing cycle. His stomach had stopped growling, but the hunger pains continued to wrack through him. He didn’t have a mirror, but Shiro was sure that his features had grown gaunt. The prison uniform that once fit his figure was now baggy. 

Survival instincts were beginning to kick in, forcing Shiro to revaluate his no-killing stance. But he refused to be broken, no matter what he body screamed for him to do.

A few cycles ago they had begun to waft the smell of cooked meat into his cell, Shiro practically salvaging at the tempting smell. But he did his best to fill his stomach with water and sleep away the hunger pains. 

It had been several cycles (or at least what he thought was cycles) where Shiro was stuck in his cell. They didn’t take him out to fight, nor did the guards bother him with anything else either. He guessed that answered his question whether he’d starve to death or be killed in the arena.

But he was roused from his slumber one cycle by one of the guards banging on his cell door. It took him a minute to muster the strength to stay standing. But soon he was dragged out of his cell and towards the familiar path of the arena. Shiro felt his stomach drop. 

The sword that was shoved into his hands felt heavier than anything Shiro has ever carried. The lights from the arena blinded him, and he had to blink several times before it adjusted. But Shiro’s opponent was what gave him the biggest shock.

It was young, scared, and unarmed. 

It was clear to him what this was supposed to be. A final chance. Kill this weakened alien before you can’t pick up a sword anymore. Live.

Shiro wanted to live. But were the consequences to his survival something he could live with? 

Gods forgive him, but that answer was yes. 

This tiny alien was going to die, if not by his hand then someone else’s. At least if it was Shiro he’d make it merciful. 

Gibbing the sword tight, Shiro attacked. 

This time when the fight was over the crowd chanted his name. He dropped the weapon onto the ground, now soaked green with the alien’s blood. He was numb when the guards escorted him back to his cell. And when a meager portion of food was left with him, Shiro devoured the sustenance as fast as he could without vomiting. 

He went to sleep that cycle with a full stomach for the first time in a long while, but his dreams were filled with the nightmares of his failure. The realization of what his actions meant sent silent tears running down his face.

He had finally broken.


	12. I think I've Broken Something: Broken Trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 12. I think I’ve Broken Something: Broken Down| Broken Bones| **Broken Trust**
> 
> We all know that Shiro and Adam broke up before Kerberos. But other than that one scene, we don't get to see how. This is my take on it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, I'm alive again. Sorry for the delay but grad school kicked my ass this past week lol. 
> 
> Taking a break today from the physical whump for some emotinal hurt/no comfort.
> 
> I actually really like Adam's character. I wish we could have seen more of him in the show/had him more developed than the two scenes we got. But oh well, that's what fanfiction is for. He may seem a little harsh in this, but this is from Shiro's POV so understandably Shiro isn't the most reliable narrator at this point. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Something didn’t add up. 

Iverson had known that Sam chose Shiro for Kerberos for months now. The man knew about his disease ever since he was diagnosed when he was 15. So why did he suddenly decide that Shiro shouldn’t be on the mission? Why did he decide to go to Admiral Sanda about his newfound concerns? What had changed?

“Hey. Earth to Shiro?” 

Shiro blinked as Matt’s hand waved in front of his face. His friend looked at him concerned.   
“Everything alright?”

“Yeah sorry, just thinking...” Shiro responded. Right they were about to do another flight sim, with both Matt and his father in the sim ship with Shiro. 

“Uh oh, that can’t be good.” Matt teased. “Since when does the big jock pilot need to think?”

Shiro rolled his eyes and nudged Matt in the side. “Ha ha very funny. And yet somehow I managed to graduate top of our class, where were you again?” 

“Right beside you, asshole.” Matt grumbled, causing Shiro to laugh. That always had the desired effect of shutting Matt up. 

“Alright boys, enough playing around. It’s time.” Commander Holt’s voice rang out, causing both Shiro and Matt to startle. When Shiro turned the commander had a small smirk on his face. 

“Dad, not cool.” Matt whined. 

“Sorry Matthew, but we have visitors today.” Commander Holt supplied. 

Shiro felt his stomach go cold. “Admiral Sanda?” He asked softly. 

The commander’s eyes softened as he turned to look at Shiro. “‘Fraid so. She’s going to be observing our joint training every now and then until the mission.” 

Matt frowned at that. “She didn’t care that much to observe twenty-four hours ago.” 

“No, but Iverson didn’t try to get Sanda to kick me off until this morning.” 

“Yeah but... ugh that’s stupid. It’s not like you don’t have hundreds of flight hours in space recorded or are over-qualified for this mission or anything.”

“That may be true, but Kerberos is going to attract more public attention.” Commander Holt countered. “I may not like it, but she does have reason to care more about this mission.” 

Shiro sighed. “She ordered for me to have another physical done later this week too. Although I’m not sure what will have changed since my last one two weeks ago.” 

Commander Holt winced at that. “Then we show them what we can do. They can’t complain if there’s nothing wrong with our training.” 

Shiro nodded. He could do that. It wasn’t like they haven’t done that sim a million times already. At this point he could fly the Kerberos mission in his sleep. This was no different than any other mission that he had to fight to prove his worth. Ad- they would all see. He could do this. 

* * *

  
“Hey Shiro, wait up!” 

Shiro stopped, allowing Matt to catch up with him. “I thought you were going to head out with your father?” 

Matt shrugged. “Eh he’s going to go yell at Sanda and Iverson for a little bit. As much as I would love to see that, Dad won’t actually rip them to pieces if I’m there.” 

The training had gone flawlessly. Shiro and the rest of the crew had preformed exceptionally. Internally he was satisfied at the look on Sanda’s face as he left the sims, let’s see her justify kicking him off the mission now. 

“But seriously, Shiro. Something was bothering you earlier. Care to share?” Matt questioned. “Wouldn’t want you to blow a gear trying to think after all.” 

Shiro’s mouth quirked up into a small smile. Leave it to Matt to always know how to make him feel better. But the smile dropped quickly as he let out a sigh.   
“I dunno. Iverson all of a sudden cares so much about me being on the mission. He went to Sanda, he wouldn’t do that unless he was serious. I mean, he’s known for months that you father chose me. He has my file. Hell, he was one of the first faculty that knew when I was diagnosed.”

“So why now?” Matt finished. 

Shiro nodded, throwing his hands up dramatically. “Yeah, why now.”

“Well.” Matt bit his lip. “Maybe someone else brought up the concern and forced him to take action?” 

Shiro frowned. “But who? It’s not like my condition is well known. And the ones who know... who would have anything to gain from this?” 

“Yeah, most of the staff would have taken any concerns to my dad first. And I don’t remember him saying anything about someone complaining. So someone specifically went over his head, knowing that Dad wouldn’t take you off of the mission.” Matt added. “Has anyone voiced their displeasure with you Shiro?” 

Shiro shook his head. “No not really. I mean the usual suspects grumbled a little, but they can’t say anything when my sim scores outshine theirs significantly. I did have a conversation with Adam today...” 

Shiro’s eyes widened as he stopped in the middle of the hallway. Matt turned to face him once he realized Shiro wasn’t at his side anymore. 

“Shiro?” 

“He couldn’t, he wouldn’t.” Shiro muttered, staring at the floor. 

“Takashi, you’re starting to worry me. What’s going on inside that brain of yours?” 

Shiro looked up at Matt shakily. “I- Adam. We had a disagreement when I complained to him that Iverson got Sanda involved.”

“He doesn’t want you to go?” Matt asked. 

“No. He thinks that by the time I get back I’ll use up the last few good years I have left.” Shiro said. “But he wouldn’t... he knows how important Kerberos is to me. We were supposed to talk more tonight, he had to leave for his class...” 

“I-Shiro. Shit. It does make sense. Who else would know that my Dad would defend you to the end of the Earth, and who else has pull with Iverson like that. He wouldn’t have budged for many. But if Adam came to him worried about you...” 

Shiro felt his stomach give out on him at Matt’s confirmation. “No. Adam wasn’t happy, but he wouldn’t betray me like that...” 

Matt put a hand on Shiro’s shoulder comfortingly. But Shiro quickly shook it off. 

“I need to go find my fiancé and get to the bottom of this.” Shiro said quietly. He didn’t give Matt a chance to respond, practically running towards the apartment he shared with Adam on the Garrison base. 

Adam was sitting at the kitchen island when Shiro walked inside, scribbling over student’s papers he must have picked up today. He looked up when Shiro walked in, face calm and neutral. 

“Takashi. How was training?”

“Good. Admiral Sanda decided to watch. But we preformed exceptionally, even to her standards.” Shiro answered, dropping his bag off at the door. He didn’t want to make eye contact with Adam, not yet. His fiancé knew him, would know that he was upset over something. And after their last fight, Shiro didn’t want to start another quite yet. 

“Everything alright?” Adam questioned. 

“Adam. Did you ask Iverson to try and pull me from the mission?” Shiro asked bluntly. There was no sense trying to beat around the bush. 

But Adam didn’t answer his question. Shiro finally looked up at him to find his face a mixture of shock and guilt.   
“You did didn’t you? Why else would Iverson pull this all of a sudden.” 

Adam let out a deep breath, shoulders slumping. “You weren’t listening to me. To my concerns. I asked Iverson to see if he could talk some sense into you. I didn’t know he would go to Sanda like that.” 

It felt like someone had stabbed Shiro in the gut. “Ad- I- How could you? You know how important this is to me! I thought we were going to talk about this.” 

“Takashi, you keep talking about how important Kerberos is to you. But what bout me, what about us?” Adam stood up from his seat. “Is this mission really worth your life? We both know that it’ll be a year before you’re home again. How much longer after that will you have left. You know what the strain of readjusting from zero-gravity does to you, and after a year in deep-space... What is Kerberos going to cost you.” 

Shiro grit his teeth, anger starting to rise. “I can do this, Adam. I’ve got the bracelets and all of those exercises that the doc gave me to mitigate the effects of zero-g.”

“I know that you can do it. But should you do it?” Adam responded, his own voice rising. 

“This is supposed to be my last mission in deep-space. After everything, why are you so against this now?”

“Because. I can’t watch you do this to yourself. Not again. I thought after the last time you’d see some sense.” Adam sighed, voice going quiet. “It’s never enough for you. This won’t be the last time Takashi. Another mission will pop up, and then another, and another. You’re not going to stop until your disease physically makes you. I’m not enough of a reason for you to stop while you still have time...” 

“Adam that’s not true...” Shiro’s voice wavered. “I promised you that this would be the last one, and I intend to keep that. But you went behind my back, and now half of the admiralty is scrutinizing me. Why couldn’t you trust me and support me on this?” 

“I have supported you Takashi. Time after time. But you don’t get it. You don’t value your own wellbeing, not when it comes to space exploration. I am tired of you selfishly going out there and putting your life, and the lives of your crewmates, at risk so you can get your thrills. I’m sorry Sanda got involved, that was never my intention. But how many people telling you no does it take before you get it?” 

Shiro felt himself go cold, quickly trying to mask his hurt. “How could you say that? I would never endanger my crewmates. Do you really think Holt wold let me pilot with his own son on board if I was truly a risk? I know my limits, better than anyone else. You of all people know how hard I’ve worked to get where I am. How badly I’ve wanted this ever since we were kids. Is it selfish to want to try and live out somewhat of a normal life while I can? Am I supposed to just give up at the first sign of trouble? My disease does not control my life. I won’t let it, not yet. You knew this going in. I thought you understood. We were supposed to be in this together, flight partners.”

Adam was silent for a moment. “Nothing I say or do will convince you to resign from the mission, will it?” 

Shiro felt his knife in his gut twist. “Adam I trusted you. And instead of talking things out this weekend like we promised you got Iverson to try and pull me off the mission. I’m not resigning. Not now. Not even for you, I’m sorry.” He watched as Adam’s face flashed several emotions, all indistinguishable, before settling to something neutral. 

“No, Takashi, I’m sorry. Earlier I told you it was either me or the mission. I was angry at the time, I didn’t really mean it then. But I do now. I cannot sit by and watch you destroy yourself.” Adam pulled the ring off of his finger, placing it on the table. “I’m going to go stay in the officer’s quarters for the night. You and your stuff should be gone tomorrow before I come back from my morning classes.” 

Before Shiro could respond, Adam grabbed his own bag and left the apartment. His gaze returned from the door to the table, where Adam’s ring sat. 

He felt numb. Like these past few days were nothing but a nightmare. But he knew that the shock would eventually wear off, and he wasn’t looking forward for the slew of emotions that would follow. 

Picking up the ring from the table, Shiro put it in his pocket followed by his own ring he usually wore. He somehow made his way onto the couch. Slumping down before his legs could give out on him, the couch groaned from the force. 

Leaning over, Shiro put his head into his hands and cried. 


	13. Breathe in, Breathe out: Chemical Pneumonia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 13. Breathe in, Breathe out: Delayed Drowning| **Chemical Pneumonia** | Oxygen Mask
> 
> There was one thing Coran had warned them about before this mission: Don't take off your helmet. The planet's atmosphere was toxic to humans. Of course that means something has to go wrong. And if it's a choice between himself and Pidge, Shiro knew what he'd choose everytime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another chapter for you! I'm going to try and write some this weekend, hopefully I can catch up a little. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

“Shiro?” 

Pidge’s voice sounded scared, sending alarms in Shiro’s head. He scrambled up from where he had fallen to find the green paladin facing a similar fate, she had been closer to the explosion than Shiro had. Her helmet’s face shield was cracked from the damage...

Oh shit. 

When they started this mission Coran had warned them against taking off their helmet. The atmosphere wasn’t compatible with human physiology, something about the acidicness doing series damage to their lungs. 

Pidge was looking up at him with wide eyes, they both knew the danger she was in. 

“Pidge hold your breath for me okay. I’m going to fix this.” Shiro reassured her. She looked at him confused for a moment before nodding. As soon as she did what he asked Shiro got to work. Taking one last breath he removed Pidge’s helmet and gave her his working one instead. He then put the cracked helmet onto his own head, hearing the hissing of the armor attempting to reseal with the new helmet. 

“What Shiro no!” Pidge protested, attempting to swap back the helmets. But Shiro grabbed her arms before she could do anything. 

“Pidge, it’s ok. The cracks aren’t too bad, so there won’t be much exposure to the air. But my lungs can take the hit before I’m put into a pod. You’ve got asthma.” 

Pidge frowned, clearly not happy with his logic, but didn’t struggle in his grip anymore. Shiro let go of her with a sigh. 

Good. He was worried she would have caught onto the fact that he was lying about the helmet’s damage. He could see the warnings from the screen’s interface, but there was nothing to be done. They didn’t have any supplies to fix it (which really there should be an emergency kit for each paladin) so he would deal with the damage. But there was no way Shiro would have let Pidge get hurt, not if he had a way to stop it. 

“Can you get ahold of the others?” He asked. But Pidge sent him another glare that scarily reminded him of Mrs. Holt’s. 

“Shiro stop talking, please. You’ll speed things up with the more oxygen you use.” 

Ok, she had a point. Shiro shot her an apologetic smile, but Pidge didn’t respond. Instead she seemed focused on her helmet, more than likely trying to raise a signal on the comms. 

“No luck, whatever explosion hit us fried our comms.” She said shaking her head in frustration. “Ok the green lion isn’t too far from here, we can head that way and get you back to the castle.” 

Shiro nodded, hiding his grimace. That was a good hour or so walk from where they were at, assuming they didn’t run across anymore trouble. He could already feel a headache start to make itself known. 

Pidge was staring at him, giving him a visual inspection. “We can’t run, for obvious reasons, but I don’t want you out in this any longer than we have to. I wonder if that skiff we saw earlier is still working. It’s about halfway to the lion so we can check when we get there.” 

Shiro gave her a thumbs up, before both started walking in the direction of the green lion.

* * *

  
He didn’t notice that Pidge had stopped until he almost ran over her. But to be fair, he was focused on keeping his slow and deep and trying to resist the urge to cough. 

“Shiro?” 

He looked down at Pidge, giving her a weak smile. She studied his face for a moment before frowning. 

“You’re breathing is shallow, but I can’t tell if your lips are blue... Are you having any chest or abdominal pains?” 

He nodded, wincing as his chest is jared.

Pidge’s eyes widened. “Both or just one?” 

He pointed to his chest and the right side of his torso.” 

“Shit.” Pidge swore. “How bad?”

Shiro held up his hand and tilted it left and right. It was so-so. Nothing he hadn’t handled before but it also wasn’t pleasant. 

“Ok, we’re almost to the skiff probably another 5 dobashes or so to go. Once you’re stationary it’ll help.” 

Shiro nodded, but lost the battle against his lungs as he did so. He let out a long hacking cough, doubling over from the force. He grimaced as he felt something phlegmy settle in his mouth, with no where to spit it out at. 

Once his breathing returned to the shallow normal, they continued on. Pidge kept an eye on Shiro every few seconds, as if she was afraid he would collapse any second. Although he did find himself concentrating more to keep his balance, so she may not be off on that assessment... 

Another round of coughs ran through him, making him even more wobbly on his feet. Shiro blinked and suddenly Pidge was beside him, almost eye level with him bent over from coughing. Something dribbled down his mouth, but he didn’t have the energy to try and remove it. 

“Shiro, is that blood?” Pidge asked, horrified. Shiro looked down at where some of the phlegm spattered the front of the helmet. Ah, yup. That’s red and probably blood. 

“That can’t be good.” He mumbled, forgetting that he wasn’t supposed to speak. It was getting harder and harder to breathe now, he wonders if some of the cracks had expanded from him jolting with all of his coughing. 

Without his permission Shiro’s legs gave out on him, sending him toppling to the ground. Pidge yelled his name, at his side instantly. She waved her armor’s wrist computer over him, cursing at whatever it was she saw. 

“L-language.” Shiro tried to chide, but Pidge ignored his comment. 

“Okay, that’s not...good. Shiro I’m going to need you to stay still okay. I’m going to grab the skiff and bring it back here to you, won’t be more than a tick. Don’t move, and stay awake.” 

Shiro hummed in response. He watched as Pidge left his vision. It was harder to keep his eyes open without anyone distracting him, but he did his best to follow Pidge’s orders. 

A rumbling brought him out of his doze, and sure enough Pidge was hovering over him again. He blinked at her, the face blurring in front of him. 

“Matt?? No wait... Katie.” He mumbled. Pidge bit her lip, moving again out of his vision. Two small arms wrapped around him from behind and he was shakily dragged onto something cold. 

“Ugh why are you so heavy, you asshole.” He heard her growl as he felt the lower half of him also rest on the cold surface. 

“Sorry.” 

“Don’t you dare. You and I are going to have a talk about keeping important medical information hidden once you’re out of the healing pod, then you’ll be sorry. Right now I need you to stay alive. I-“ Her breath hitched. “I can’t lose anyone else okay?”

  
Shiro looked up at her, tilting his head back some to meet her eyes. They looked wet.   
“Mmmm’ okay.” He tried to reassure. He couldn’t remember why he wasn’t okay, but he was in pain right now. 

Pidge reseted a gloved hand on his helmet before standing up. “Okay I’m going to drive the skiff. No dying on me got it.” 

“Kay.” Shiro responded weakly. 

He heard the sound of an engine start up, and then the cold surface began to move. The sky was shifting in front of him, and Shiro watched as he felt the wind blow in his face. Maybe he’d take a nap now. Yeah, a nap sounded nice. 

Shiro shut his eyes, allowing darkness to take over. 


	14. Is Something Burning?: Branding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 14 Is Something Burning?: **Branding** | Heat Exhaustion| Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heh hey everyone, sorry for the wait. Life's been a little crazy right now but I will finish these prompts promise.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

After the first match that had branded him champion, Shiro found himself fighting match after match. Apparently it was normal for the Galra to run potential new gladiators through their paces. 

With little food and sleep, their plan seemed to be working. Shiro was exhausted. He spent majority of any free time given to him sleeping. 

He thought it would never end. Was this how he was going to die, worked to death match after match? 

* * *

  
“Hey Shiro, are you going to come into the water?” Pidge called over to him. The rest of the paladins were all in the river water, enjoying the time to relax while they could. Shiro himself was relaxing on the shore, soaking in the sun. He did have swim trunks on, but a shirt covering his upper body. 

Shiro shook his head. “No, you guys have fun. I’m just enjoying the warmth.” 

While that was true, Shiro also didn’t want to remove his shirt. There were some things he didn’t want his team to see. A particular scar on the right lower back was acting up today too. It wasn’t uncommon for it to act up, but today seemed worse than usual. His hand drifted down unconsciously to that area, but he caught himself before anyone else had spotted it. 

* * *

  
They didn’t bring him to his cell after his last match. Instead of taking the left to the cells he was marched down the right. The guards led him into an interrogation chamber, much like the ones he had seen when he was first captured by the Galra. 

There was another galran soldier waiting for them when the door opened. He had some sort of electric prong in his hands. 

“Prisoner 117-9875 for marking.” The sentry guard reported to the galran. 

“Good, chain him to the table while I prep the branding.”

Wait what? 

He wasn’t given any chance to fight as he was pushed down face first onto the table. His hands were chained to either edge.   
Shit that electric prong was a cattle rod. 

Shiro couldn’t see anything from his position, raking up his anxiety and fear. 

“Now now, champion. Stop squirming. You don’t want me to mess up and have to start over would you?” 

Ice ran through his veins as his body stilled immediately. There wasn’t anything he could do to alleviate his situation. His only option was to grit his teeth and brace himself. 

He felt the cold air knick at his back as the black undersuit was pulled away. There was a pressure on his lower back and then...

Pain. 

Heat radiated from the branding, and Shiro cried out as his world went white with anguish. He slumped fully onto the table, legs no longer able to hold him up. 

The galran soldier chuckled as he removed the cattle prod from Shiro’s skin. “Congrats 117-9875, you’re officially property of the Galra Empire.” 

Shiro closed his eyes, keeping tears from leaking out. 

* * *

  
Shiro was brought out of his thoughts by Allura gracefully settling down next to him. He offered her a smile that was graciously returned. 

“Not going to join the chicken fight?” He asked jokingly. Currently Pidge was on top of Hunk and Lance on top of Kieth as they brawled it out in the water. 

Allura looked at him quizzically. “I still do not understand what that game has to do with a chicken.” 

“You know princess, I don’t know either. That’s just what it’s always been called I guess.” Shiro laughed. “That still doesn’t answer my question.” 

“I believe I shall watch first. I am interested to see if Lance and Kieth can work together.”

“Mmmmm, I give them a 60-40 chance of succeeding. Otherwise Lance is going to kick Kieth on accident and Kieth will drop him in response.” 

There was a squawk before a loud splash was heard. Lance and Keith’s heads popped out of the water as Pidge and Hunk cheered. 

“Team Punk wins again!”

“No fair, you cheated Pidge!” 

“And how exactly did I cheat?”

“Pretty sure no biting is in the rule book.” 

“There is no rule book Lance. Besides serves you right for trying to take out my glasses.” 

They continued to squabble, which turned into another round of chicken. Shiro and Allura watched on, amused.

“I believe I do wish to play, but I need a partner. Shall we show them how it’s done?” Allura spoke after a few minutes. 

Shiro bit his lip. “I don’t know Princess...” 

“Shiro.” 

Shiro turned his head to look at Allura. Her face was scrunched up in worry.

“You know you can take off your shirt, we will not judge.” 

Shiro sighed. “I know. But there are some things they shouldn’t see. They know I have scars, but knowing and seeing are two separate things.” 

“You wish to protect them.” Allura stated. “I think they would rather you have fun with them instead.”

Shiro was silent, mulling over the decision. 

“Besides, you do not necessarily have to take off your shirt.” 

Shiro blinked. “But I thought Coran said not to get these Altean shirts wet? Something about degrading the colors.” 

“Well I think Coran can manage just this once.” Allura stood up, tugging Shiro up with her. “Common Shiro, let’s go put those paladins in their place.” 

Shiro laughed, shaking his head. “Alright. It would be funny to see Lance’s face when he loses to us.” 

Allura smirked at him. “Precisely my idea.” 

He followed her into the water, shirt still on. Maybe one day he’d be comfortable showing them. But until then it was nice to know that his team would find ways to help him join in on the fun.


End file.
